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LIBRARY 

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Durham,  N.  C. 


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https://archive.org/details/wesleymemorialvo02clar 


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THE 


Wesley  Memorial  Volume; 

OR, 

WESLEY  AND  THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT, 


JUDGED  BY  ISfEARLY  OILE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  WRITERS, 
LIVING  AND  DEAD. 


EDITED  BY 

REV.  J.  O.  A.  CLARK,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


/ 7 ^ 


NEW  YORK  : PHILLIPS  & HUNT. 

CINCINNATI : WALDEN  & STOWE. 

J.  W.  BURKE  & CO.,  Macon,  Ga.  J.  B.  M’FERRIN,  Agent,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

L.  D.  CAMERON  & CO.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

1880. 


Copyright  1880,  by 


:pia;zrjiji:ps  cfc  zzxjnsra?. 


New  York. 


VJSI^CW 

a,  ^ 

gaKX)L  Of  RELIGION 


1.  “ If  Methodism  continue  in  vigor  and  purity  to  future  genera- 
tions, it  will  be  associated  with  the  name  of  its  founder,  and  encircle 
his  memory  with  increasing  luster.” — Richard  Watson. 

2.  “These  gentlemen  are  irregular,  but  they  have  done  good,  and 
I pray  God  to  bless  them.” — Potter^  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

3.  “Mr.  Wesley,  may  I be  found  at  your  feet  in  heaven.” — Loivth, 
Bishop  of  London. 

4.  “ In  him  even  old  age  appeared  delightful,  like  an  evening 
cloud;  and  it  was  impossible  to  observe  him  without  wishing  fer- 
vently, ‘ May  my  last  end  be  like  his.’  ” — Alexander  Knox. 

5.  “I  consider  him  as  the  most  influential  mind  of  the  last  century 
— the  man  who  will  have  produced  the  greatest  effects  centuries,  or 
perhaps  millenniums  hence,  if  the  present  race  of  men  should  con- 
tinue so  long.” — Robert  Southey. 

6.  “His  life  stands  out,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  unquestionably 
pre-eminent  in  religious  labors  above  that  of  any  other  man  since 
the  apostolic  age.” — Abel  Stevens. 

7.  “His  quarrel  was  solely  with  sin  and  Satan.  His  master  passion 
was,  in  his  own  often-repeated  expression,  the  love  of  God  and  the 
love  of  man  for  God’s  sake.  The  world  has  at  length  done  tardy  jus- 
tice to  its  benefactor.  ’ ’ — Overton. 


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PREFACE 


¥HEI^  a traveler  over  the  mountains  of  California  first 
sees  at  a distance  those  great  trees,  which,  on  their  dis- 
covery, astonished  tlie  world,  he  experiences  a sense  of  disap- 
pointment. They  are  only  trees — large  trees,  it  is  true,  and 
well  proportioned,  but  yet  only  trees.  But  after  he  has 
stood  in  the  midst  of  the  grove — after  he  has  walked  for  more 
than  three  hundred  feet  close  around  a single  trunk,  and 
looked  up  to  branches  as  high  above  him — or  perchance  has 
walked  upon  some  fallen  tree  a hundred  feet  above  the  ground, 
with  a trunk  so  wide  that  along  it  a team  might  be  driven ; 
then,  and  not  till  then,  does  he  realize  their  immense  magnitude. 

So  is  it  with  great  men.  First  seen  they  are  only  men — 
common  men  in  their  appearance  and  habits.  Not  until  we 
study  their  movements,  record  their  labors,  follow  them  in 
critical  moments,  consider  their  decisions,  look  out  on  their 
broad  views,  and  feel  the  throbbings  of  their  hearts,  do 
we  comprehend  their  greatness.  The  one  grand  and  only 
perfect  character  our  world  has  ever  seen  was  not  recognized 
by  his  own  age.  He  had  no  “ beauty  that  they  should  desire 
him,”  and  “ they  esteemed  him  not.”  But  after  eighteen  cent- 
uries he  towers  above  all  other  characters. 

In  some  measure,  such  was  the  life  of  John  "Wesley.  '"No 
man  of  his  time  was  less  understood.  He  was  singular,  because 
he  fixed  his  eye  upon  and  followed  only  the  truth.  He  was 
mahgned  and  traduced.  - Pulpits  denounced  him,  the  press 
satirized  him,  and  every  year  pamphlets  and  volumes  attacked 
his  doctrines  and  movements,  and  impugned  his  motives. 
But,  unmoved,  he  kept  steadily  to  his  purpose,  and  went  about 
doing  good.  To-day  nearly  a century  has  passed ; the  names 


6 


Peeface. 


of  many  of  liis  detractors  have  perished,  but  every-where  he  is 
associated  with  the  great  thinkers  and  glorious  workers  of  the 
world.  His  name  to-day  is  upon  more  lips,  in  more  lands, 
than  is  that  of  any  other  man  of  his  times. 

It  was  a happy  thought  of  the  editor  of  this  volume  to 
secure  different  writers,  from  different  churches,  and  from 
different  stand-points,  to  present  their  estimates  of  Mr.  Wesley’s 
life  and  works.  For  Wesley  was  many-sided,  and  from  many 
points  of  view  his  characteristics  are  worthy  of  record. 

To  us,  two  elements  in  him  -are  pre-eminently  conspicuous. 

/ First,  his  unwearying  labor  and  perseverance : second,  his  en- 
tire dedication  of  himself  to  Christ  and  his  work.  He  planned 
his  work  skillfully,  and  did  it  thoroughly.  ^ It  has  been  said 
of  him  that  “ he  read  more,  wrote  more,  preached  more, 
and  traveled  more,  than  any  minister,  if  not  than  any  man,  of 
his  times.”  His  long  life,  spanning  nearly  a century,  gave 
him  great  opportunities,  and  they  were  well  improved.  Two 
entries  in  his  journal  illustrate  his  life : “ Here  I rested  for 
two  weeks,  that  I might  write  up  my  notes,  preaching  only 
every  morning  and  evening.”  And  in  his  eighty-third  year, 
preparing  Mr.  Fletcher’s  life,  he  says : “ To  this  I dedicated  all 
the  time  I could  spare  till  Hovember,  from  five  in  the  morn- 
ing till  eight  at  night.  These  are  my  studying  hours : I can- 
not write  longer  in  a day  without  hurting  my  eyes.”  He 
knew  no  rest  till  he  found  it  in  the  grave. 

He  early  read,  translated,  published,  and  took  into  his  own 
heart  and  life,  the  little  book  of  Thomas  a Kempis,  called  the 
Imitation  of  Christ.  To  be  like  Christ,  to  think  Christ’s 
thoughts,  to  sjjeak  Christ’s  words,  to  carry  out  Christ’s  plans, 
to  do,  as  far  as  man  might  do,  Christ’s  works,  was  the  one 
grand  ambition  of  his  life.  Hence  those  broad  ideas  of  toler- 
ation, Christian  fellowship  and  unity,  which  the  Christian 
world  is  slowly  embracing.  He  heard  the  Master  say,  “ Tlie 
field  is  the  world;”  and  his  heart  echoed  back,  “The  world  is 
my  parish.”  M.  S. 


A PEEFATOEY  POEM. 


SEE  God’s  witness  unto  men  ! 

Faithful  through  all  the  earnest  years, 

As  though,  from  old  anointed  seers. 

One  had  been  bid  to  earth  again 
For  ordered  work  among  his  peers. 

Kindle  as  ye  read  the  tale. 

The  thrilling  tale  of  duty  done, 

Of  gospel  triiimphs,  nobly  won 
By  Truth,  almighty  to  prevail, — 

By  Love,  unselfish  as  the  sun. 

They  to  holy  missions  born. 

Who  shed  a bloom  upon  the  days, 

And  work  for  Christ  in  loving  ways  ; 

F or  them  the  envious  blasts  of  scorn 
But  scatter  seeds  of  future  praise. 

Time  the  great  avenger  is 

Of  patient  souls  with  lofty  aim  ; 

For  whom  the  blind  to-day  hath  blame, 

The  wiser  morrows  hoard  the  bliss. 

And  fill  the  ages  with  their  name. 

Who  themselves  for  others  give. 

Need  not  to  slander  make  reply. 

Nor  falter  in  their  purpose  high  ; 

For  God  hath  willed  that  they  should  live, 
While  all  the  proud  self-seekers  die. 

True  hearts  wish  no  flattering  songs  ; 

They  humbly  bow  in  holier  fane ; 

Men  do  not  bless  the  clouds  for  rain. 

The  music  of  the  lyre  belongs 

To  the  skilled  hand  which  wakes  the  strain. 


A Peefatory  Poem. 


Service  is  its  own  reward 

If  the  deep  love  but  prompt  the  deed. 
All  heaven-sent  souls  can  ask  or  need 
Folds  in  the  favor  of  the  Lord  ; 

Their  guerdon  this — their  highest  meed. 

Praise  we  then  our  God  alone, 

Who  made  his  servant  thus  complete  I 
And  pour  we,  in  libation  sweet, 

Our  wealth  of  spikenard — each  his  owm — 
In  tribute  at  the  Master’s  feet. 


March  1*7,  1879. 


CONTENTS, 


. PACK 

PEEFACE 6 

Eev.  M.  Simpson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

PEEFATOEY  POEM 7 

Eev.  W.  Moblet  Punshon,  LL.D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

INTEODUCTION 18 

Eev.  J.  0.  A.  Claek,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

THE  WESLEY  FAMILY 27 

Mr.  Geobge  J.  Stevenson,  M.A.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

WESLEY  AND  METHODISM 61 

Eev.  J.  0.  A.  Clabk,  D.D.,  LLD.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

••  WESLEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  OF  ENGLAND 76 

Eev.  J.  H.  Eigg,  D.D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

« WESLEY’S  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  SOCIAL,  INTELLECTUAL,  AND  EE- 

LIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MASSES 98 

Thomas  Austin  Bullock,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  New  Connection  in  England, 

WESLEY  vYND  PEESONAL  EELIGIOUS  EXPEEIENCE 128 

Eev.  Ctbus  D.  Foss,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

WESLEY  AS  A EEVIVALIST 149 

Eev.  Geoegb  Douglass,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

* WESLEY  THE  FOUNDEE  OF  METHODISM 164 

Eev.  Holland  N.  M’Tteibe,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

South. 

, METHODIST  DOCTEINE 168 

Eev.  William  Bubt  Pope,  D.D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

• IDEAS  WESLEY  DEVELOPED  IN  OEGANIZING  HIS  SOCIETIES 191 

Eev.  Oelando  T.  Dobbin,  LL.D.,  (Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  University  of  Ox- 
ford,) of  the  Church  of  England. 


10 


Contents, 


PiLOB 


- WESLEY’S  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  RELIGION  OP  THE  WORLD 213 

Rev.  WilliajM  Cooke,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  New  Connection  in  England. 

WESLEY  AND  CHURCH  POLITY 245 

Rev.  Tho.mas  'Webbteb,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada. 

WESLEY  AND  THE  COLORED  RACE 266 

Rev.  L.  II.  H6lsey,  Bishop  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America. 

WESLEY  THE  PREACHER 268 

Rev.  J.  II.  Rigg,  D.D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

WESLEY  AS  AN  ITINERANT 285 

Rev.  George  F.  Fierce,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

South. 

WESLEY  AS  A POPULAR  PREACHER 294 

Rev.  M.  LeliEtre,  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Prance  and  Switzerland. 

WESLEY  AS  AN  EDUCATOR 300 

Rev.  Ef.astu.s  0.  Haven,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

W^LEY  AND  HIS  LITERATURE 310 

Rev.  W.  Morlet  Punshon,  LL.D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

WESLEY  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOLS 829 

Sir  Charles  Reed,  M.P.,  LL.D.,  (Tale,)  of  the  Independents  of  England. 

YYESLEY  JUGE  PAR  de  PRESSENS^ 335 

WESLEY  JUDGED  BY  DR.  de  PRESSENSE 339 

Rev.  Eumond  de  Pressenbe,  D.D.,  (University  of  Breslau,)  of  the  Reformed  Church 
of  Paris. 


EPW  ORTH  — A_  Poem 843 

Rev.  Dwight  Williams,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

WESLEY  AND  WHITEFIELD 850 

Rev.  Joseph  Kirsop,  of  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  of  England. 

JOHN  WESLEY  AND  HIS  MOTHER 861 

Rev.  John  Potts,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

JOHN  AND  CHARLES  WESLEY 373 

Rev.  J.  R.  Jacques,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada. 

PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD  IN  METHODISM 383 

Rev.  Andrew  A.  Lipscomb,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church. 


Contents. 


11 


PAGE 

WESLEY  AND  THE  EVIDENCE  WEITEES,  ESSAYISTS,  AND  OTHEES  404 

Eev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

WESLEY  THE  WOEKEE 418 

Eev.  B.  F.  Lee,  L.B.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

WESLEY  AND  ELETCHEE 427 

Eev.  J.  H.  Overton,  (University  of  Oxford,)  of  the  Church  of  England. 

WESLEY  AND  CLAEKE 435 

• Eev.  J.  P.  Ne'wman,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

WESLEY’S  LIBEEALITY  AND  CATHOLICITY 452 

Eev.  A.  P.  Stanley,  D.D.,  (Dean  of  Westminster,)  of  the  Church  of  England. 

WESLEYAN  LYEIC  POETEY 464 

Eev.  Abel  Stevens,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

WESLEYAN  HYMN  MUSIC 473 

Miss  Eliza  Wesley,  granddaughter  of  Charles  Wesley. 

WESLEY  AND  COKE 481 

Eev.  Wm.  M.  Wightman,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South. 

WESLEY  AND  ASBUEY 497 

Eev.  Thomas  0.  Summers,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

IN  MEMOEIAM. — Charles  Wesley,  Hyatnologist 529 

Benjamin  Gough,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

' WESLEY  AND  LAY  PEEACHING 532 

Eev.  Isaac  P.  Cook,  Local  Preacher  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

WESLEY’S  DEATH  AND  CHAEACTEE 548 

Eev.  Luke  Ttekman,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodists. 

THE  WESLEY  MEMOEIAL  IN  WESTMINSTEE  ABBEY 594 

Eev.  A.  P.  Stanley,  D.D.,  (Dean  of  Westminster,)  and  others. 

WESLEY  IN  SAVANNAH  AND  THE  WESLEY  MONUMENTAL 

CHUECH 506 

Eev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

WESLEY  AND  THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  Judged  BY  NEABLY  OnE 

Hundred  Writers,  Living  or  Dead 649 

Eev.  J.  O.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


12 


Contents. 


PACK 


THE  WESLEY  MONUMENTAL  CHURCH 700 

Eev.  Loviok  Piekce,  D.D.,  with  an  Introduction  by  Key.  A.  G.  Hatgood,  D.D., 
both  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

STATISTICS  OE  METHODISM 706 

Eev.  'W.  H.  De  Put,  D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

APPENDIX 725 


CoNTAiNEfo  Official  and  other  Papers,  approvtno  the  Wesley  Monu- 
mental Church,  from  the  following  Methodist  Bodies  and  Others. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South  ; 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  ; 

The  Members  of  Congress  from  Georgia  ; 

The  President  of  the  United  States; 

The  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  ; 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  ; 

The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  ; 

The  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America  ; 

The  Methodist  Church  of  Canada; 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada  ; 

The  British  Wesleyan  Methodists; 

The  Methodist  New  Connection  in  England  ; 

The  Methodist  United  Free  Churches  in  England  ; 

The  Primitive  Methodists  of  England  ; and 
The  Methodists  of  France  and  Switzerland  ; also. 

Concluding  Eemarks  by  the  Editor  relating  to  the  approaching  Meth- 
odist Ecumenical  Council. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PEOFILE  of  JOHN  WESLEY Frontispiece 

POETEAIT  of  SUSANNA  WESLEY 26 

POETEAIT  of  JOHN  WESLEY 269 

POETEAIT  OF  CHAELES  WESLEY 372 

FACSIMILE  OF  LETTEE  FEOM  JOHN  WESLEY  TO  ADAM  CLAEKE.446,  447 
FACSIMILE  OF  LETTEE  FEOM  DE.  CLAEKE  TO  LOED  TEIGN- 

MOUTH 448-^51 

THE  MEMOEIAL  TABLET  IN  WESTMINSTEE  ABBEY 599 

WESLEY  MONUMENTAL  CHUECH,  SAVANNAH,  GA 607 


INTRODUCTION. 


IN  offering  the  Wesley  Memokial  Yoltjme  to  the  Puhhc,  it 
may  be  proper  to  state  the  facts  in  which  it  had  its  origin. 
Its  object  is  twofold : first,  to  erect  by  pen-pictures,  drawn 
by  leading  minds,  a Memorial  to  Wesley  which  shall  be,  we 
trust,  more  enduring  than  marble : second,  to  aid  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church,  now  building  in 
Savannah,  Ga.,\the  only  city  in  America  in  which  Mr.  Wesley 
had  a home  and  a parish.  To  the  completion  of  the  Monu- 
mental Church  the  net  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  hook  will 
he  exclusively  devoted. 

, During  the  Editor’s  late  visit  to  England  the  Memorial  Yol- 
UME  was  conceived.  It  was  suggested  to  his  mind,  with  almost 
the  force  of  an  inspiration,  that  such  a work  would  not  only 
aid  his  efforts  to  build  the  Monumental  Church,  hut  help  to 
illustrate  the  life-work  of  John  Wesley,  and  bring  the  various 
Methodisms  of  the  World  into  closer  union  and  fellowship. 
While  lying,  pressed  by  many  a care,  upon  his  bed  at  his  hotel 
in  London,  the  Memorial  Yolume,  with  its  name,  its  sub- 
jects, and  its  contributors,  was,  after  constant  and  earnest 
prayer  to  Almighty  God,  mapped  out  with  such  vividness  and 
distinctness  that  he  arose  at  once  and  wrote  out  the  plan.  The 
book  now  offered  to  the  public  is  the  result. 

The  work  is  given,  in  all  its  essential  features,  just  as  it 
was  first  conceived  and  planned  on  that,  to  the  Editor  at  least, 
eventful  morning.  A few  subjects  have  been  added,  and  a few 
names  substituted ; but  the  great  majority  of  the  contributors 
are  those  who,  from  its  inception,  were  assigned  to  the  subjects 
upon  which  they  have  written.  That  the  Editor  might  be  more^ 


14 


Inteoduction. 


likely  to  succeed,  to  some  of  the  themes  more  than  one  writer 
was  assigned.  If  one  failed,  there  were  others  equally  able  to 
whom  he  could  apply.  With  the  exception,  therefore,  of  cer- 
tain subjects  subsequently  added,  and  of  a few  prepared  by 
writers  other  than  those  to  whom  an  invitation  to  write  for  the 
work  was  first  given,  and  whose  previous  and  unfulfilled  en- 
gagements allowed  them  to  take  no  part  in  it,  the  volume, 
both  in  its  subjects  and  contributors,  is  very  nearly  what  the 
Editor  designed  from  the  beginning. 

On  the  same  day  the  work  was  conceived,  the  Editor  began  a 
correspondence  with  some  of  those  whom  he  had  selected  to 
write  for  it.  On  some  he  called,  and  made  personal  request. 
In  a few  days  he  received  the  pledges  of  the  Eev.  Dr.  James 
H.  Eigg,  the  Eev.  Dr.  Arthur  Peni’hyn  Stanley,  Mr.  George 
J.  Stevenson,  M.A.,  Sir  Charles  Eeed,  LL.D.,  and  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Abel  Stevens.  To  these  were  soon  added  the  pledges  of 
the  Eev.  Dr.  William  Cooke,  the  Eev.  Joseph  Kirsop,  the 
Eev.  Dr.  W.  Morley  Punshon,  the  Eev.  Dr.  William  B. 
Pope,  the  Eev.  Dr.  O.  T.  Dobbin,  the  Eev.  Dr.  E.  0.  Haven, 
and  the  Eev.  Luke  Tyerman. 

With  these  pledges,  received  in  London,  the  Editor  retimned 
home  to  complete  what  was  so  auspiciously  begun  abroad. 
How  he  has  succeeded  will  appear  in  the  volume  itself.  In  it 
the  reader  will  find  representative  writers  from  nearly  all  the 
Methodisms  of  Europe,  Canada,  and  the  United  States.'  It 
was  the  Editor’s  wish  that  no  Methodist  organization  claiming 
John  Wesley  as  its  spiritual  founder  should  be  left  out  of  the 
Memorial  Yolume.  Every  effort  in  his  power  to  secure  this 
result  has  been  made.  If  any  one  is  omitted  it  has  been  from  no 
fault  of  the  Editor,  for  he  loves  all  the  people  called  Method- 
ists, and  prays  that  all,  with  one  heart  and  one  soul,  may  pre- 
serve the  unity  and  purity  of  Wesleyan  Methodism. 

The  Editor  would  here  gratefully  record  his  obligations  to  all 
who  have  contributed  to  the  work.  It  is,  indeed,  marvel- 
ous how  readily  responses  were  made  to  his  call.  This  is 


Inteodtjction. 


15 


more  a matter  of  surprise  when  it  is  remembered  that  every 
contributor  is  overburdened  by  Cburcb  work  and  other 
pressing  engagements,  and  that  every  article  has  been  a free- 
will offering — a voluntary  contribution — to  the  kloNUMENXAn 
Church.  Every  article,  as  Dr.  Abel  Stevens  called  his  when 
he  sent  it  from  his  temporary  sojourn  by  the  lakes  and  mount- 
ains of  Switzerland,  is  the  author’s  “brick”  in  the  monu- 
mental edifice  which  we  are  building  in  America  in  honor  of 
the  great  and  good  Wesley.  To  one  and  all  the  Editor  returns 
his  heartfelt  thanks.  May  God  reward  them  for  what  has 
been  to  each  a labor  of  love  and  self-sacrifice  ! 

In  returning  thanks  to  the  noble  corps  of  writers  who  have 
aided  him,  the  Editor  must  return  special  thanks  to  those  who 
belong  to  other  communions.  May  Heaven’s  choicest  blessings 
rest  upon  them ! To  this  simple  but  sincere  prayer  we  are  sure 
that  our  common  Methodism  will  respond  a hearty  Amen. 

Besides  those  whose  names  appear  as  contributors  to  the 
volume,  the  Editor  is  under  obligation  to  others.  It  is  very 
gratifying  to  be  able  to  record  that  from  every  one — except 
three  or  four — both  in  Europe  and  America,  with  whom,  while 
preparing  the  work,  the  Editor  has  corresponded,  answers  have 
been  received.  But  perhaps  it  is  due  to  the  three  or  four 
who  ♦ have  failed  to  answer  his  communications,  to  say,  that 
the  Editor  has  no  evidence  that  they  ever  received  the 
letters  which  he  addressed  to  them.  Their  silence  may,  there- 
fore, be  explained  by  the  fact  that  his  letters  to  them  never 
arrived  at  their  destination.  From  all  others,  however,  most 
prompt  and  courteous  answers  came,  nearly  all  of  which  were 
fuU  of  tenderest  sympathy,  of  good  cheer,  and  of  sincere  re- 
grets on  the  part  of  such  as  were  prevented  by  prior  and 
imperative  engagements  from  writing  the  articles  requested. 
For  such  universal  promptness  and  kindness  the  Editor  can 
account  but  in  one  way;H.it  was  a beautiful  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  the  great  Christian  teacher  and  reformer  whose 
fife  work  he  was  seeking  to  honor.  It  showed  more  fully  than 


16 


I]SrTEODUCTIO]Sr. 


anything  else  conld  show,  what  a hold  the  name  of  John  Wes- 
ley has  upon  all  true  Christian  hearts  the  world  over.  And 
this  is  the  more  remarkable  when  it  is  remembered,  that  many 
of  these  answers  came  from  those  who  are  not  called  by  Mr. 
Wesley’s  name.  In  nearly  every  instance,  both  those  who 
have  written  for  the  Mejioeial  Yoltjme  and  those  who  were 
compelled  to  decline,  have  pronounced  it  a very  great  honor  to 
be  asked  to  contribute  to  such  a work. 

It  would,  no  doubt,  give  great  pleasure  to  Methodists  and 
the  friends  of  Mr.  Wesley  to  read  the  letters  themselves,  or  to 
see  them  in  print.  But  they  are  too  many  and  voluminous  to 
be  given  here.  While  this  is  true,  the  Editor  may  be  permitted 
to  give  a few  to  the  public,  either  in  whole  or  in  part.  And 
this  he  does  the  more  readily,  because,  when  he  asked  contri- 
butions, he  requested  either  articles  on  the  subjects  assigned, 
or  letters  which  might  be  used  in  the  published  volume.  Out 
of  the  many  received  the  Editor  gives  only  the  answers  of  such 
as  have  no  article  in  the  book  itseK.  They  are  given  in  the 
order  in  which  they  were  received,  and  the  names  of  the  dis- 
tinguished writers  are  as  follows  : the  Eight  Hon.  W.  E.  Glad- 
stone, ex-Premier  of  Great  Britain ; the  Eev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon, 
of  the  Tabernacle,  London ; the  Eev.  ISTewman  Hall,  LL.B., 
of  Christ  Chm’ch  Square,  London;  Mr.  Wm.  E.  H.  Lqcky, 
M.  A.,  author  of  “ Eationalism  in  Europe,”  “ European  Morals,” 
and  “ England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century ; ” the  Eight  Eev. 
Hr.  Ellicott,  Lord  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol ; the  Eev. 
Hr.  W.  Antliff,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Theological  Insti- 
tute, Sunderland,  England;  the  Eev.  Hr.  J.  E.  Hurst,  Presi- 
dent of  Hrew  Theological  Seminary,  Madison,  Hew  Jersey ; 
the  Eev.  Hr.  Wm.  M.  Taylor,  Pastor  of  the  Broadway  Taber- 
nacle, Hew  York  city;  the  Eev.  Hr.  M.  Simpson,  Bishop  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church ; the  Eev.  Hr.  Phihp  SchafE, 
of  Hew  York  city  ; the  Eev.  Hr.  Wm.  Bacon  Stevens,  Bishop 
of  the  Hiocese  of  Pennsylvania ; the  Eev.  Hr.  Haniel  A.  Payne, 
Bishop  of  the  African  M.  E.  Church,  United  States ; and  the 


InTRODUCTIOJS". 


17 


Rev.  Dr.  Alexander  Clark,  editor  of  tlie  “Protestant  Method- 
ist Recorder,”  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania.  The  Editor  regrets 
to  add  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clark  is  since  deceased.  The  letters 
are  as  follows  : — 

Hawaeden,  September  7,  1878. 

Dear  Sir:  The  design  described  in  your  letter  is  full  of  moral  and 
historical  interest,  but  I regret  to  say,  it  is  quite  beyond  my  power  to 
take  part  in  it.  It  would  require  me  to  enter  upon  a new  and  distinct 
set  of  studies  necessary  for  the  proper  execution  of  the  work,  whereas 
my  engagements  already  begun  are  in  sad  arrears.  I must,  therefore, 
ask  you  to  excuse  me. 

I remain,  dear  sir,  your  very  faithful  and  obedient 
Eev.  J.  O.  a.  Clark,  D.D.  W.  E.  Gladstone. 


Nightingale  Lane,  Clapham,  September  13,  1878. 
Dear  Sir:  I count  it  a great  honor  to  have  been  asked  to  contribute 
to  the  Wesley  Volume  ; and  you  have  rightly  judged  that  I should  have 
written  in  a tone  which  would  show  that  no  doctrinal  differences  pre- 
rent my  feeling  deep  veneration  for  the  character  of  John  Wesley. 

I am,  however,  unable  to  attempt  more  work.  I am  burdened  as  it 
IS,  and  can  hardly  hold  on  from  week  to  week.  I have  no  leisure,  nor 
the  prospect  of  any,  and  I could  not  undertake  the  work  which  you  re- 
quest of  me.  Yours  very  truly, 

Eev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 


The  Try  House,  Christ  Church  Square, 
Hampstead  Heath,  September  17,  1878. 
My  Dear  Sir:  I feel  deeply  grateful  for  the  high  honor  your  request 
confers  on  me.  I only  wish  my  ability  were  equal  to  my  desire  to 
comply  with  it.  But  the  fact  is,  that  I have  just  returned  from  my  va- 
cation to  a long  series  of  preaching  engagements  in  different  parts  of 
the  country,  which,  added  to  my  onerous  pastoral  work,  entirely  pre- 
vent my  venturing  to  undertake  so  honorable  and  responsible  a service. 
With  hearty  good  wishes,  believe  me,  dear  sir,  faithfully  yours, 

Eev.  j.  O.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  Newman  Hall. 


38  Onslow  Gardens,  S.  W.,  October  4,  1878. 
Dear  Sir:  I am  sorry  I cannot  write  an  article  for  the  Memorial 
Volume,  for  I have,  already  in  hand  a long  book  which  requires  all  my 
2 


18 


Inteoduction. 


energy  and  time;  and  I have,  moreover,  very  recently  published,  at  con- 
siderable length,  my  views  about  Wesley  and  his  relations  to  English 
history. 

If  men  may  be  measured  by  the  work  they  have  accomplished,  John 
Wesley  can  liardly  fail  to  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  figure  who  has 
appeared  in  the  religions  history  of  the  world  since  the  days  of  the 
Reformation ; and  few  men  liave  i^roduced  a religious  revival  in  a time 
so  little  propitious  to  religious  emotion,  or  have  erected  a great  Church 
with  so  little  of  the  spirit  of  a sectarian. 

It  was  a strange  thing  that,  at  a time  when  politicians  were  doing  so 
much  to  divide,  religious  teachers  should  have  done  so  much  to  unite, 
the  two  great  branches  of  the  English  race;  and  that,  in  spite  of  civil 
war  and  of  international  jealousy,  a movement  which  sprang  in  an 
English  university  should  have  acquired  so  firm  a hold  over  the  hearts 
and  intellects  of  the  American  people. 

■ Wishing  every  success  to  your  Memorial, 

I remain,  dear  sir,  your  obedient  servant. 

Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  W.  E.  H.  Leckt. 


Palace,  Gloucester,  October  5,  1878. 

My  Dear  Sir:  I am  much  honored  by  your  kind  and  explicit  letter. 
I am  unfeignedly  sorry,  as  I have  told  Dr.  Rigg,  that  I am  unable  to 
take  any  f)art,  however  little.  My  time  is  now  used  up  to  every  mo- 
ment ; and  I am  under  a pressure  which  positively  precludes  my  under- 
taking any  more.  I can  now  hardly  keep  up  my  correspondence. 

This  must  be  my  excuse  for  this  brief  answer  to  your  most  friendly 
and  interesting  letter. 

I have  no  doubt  that  the  forthcoming  Volume  will  be  received  with 
interest  in  both  this  country  and  America. 

I shall  keep  your  letter  as  an  example  of  true,  heart-whole  enthu- 
siasm in  the  cause  you  so  ably  advocate. 

Excuse  one  overpressed  for  saying  no  more,  but  believe  me. 

Very  faithfully  yours. 

Rev.  J.  O.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  C.  J.  Gloucester  and  Bristol. 


Primitive  Methodist  Theological  Institute, 

Sunderland,  October  31,  1878. 

Dear  Sir:  Yours  came  to  hand  just  as  I was  leaving  home  on  Saturday. 
I take  the  earliest  opportunity  of  thanking  you  for  the  honor  you  do  me 


Inteodtjctiok. 


19 


in  asking  me  to  write  for'the  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  On  account  of 
the  state  of  my  liealth,  and  my  numerous  engagements,  I am  obliged  to 
decline  the  undertaking. 

I am  very  sorry  I cannot  help  you  in  your  most  laudable  work.  With 
my  best  wishes,  I am.  Yours  truly, 

Rey.  Dr.  Clark.  W.  Antliff. 


Drew  Theological  Seminary, 

Madison,  N.  J.,  November  8,  1878. 

My  Dear  Doctor:  I have  read  your  letter  wdth  great  interest,  and  think 
you  have  made  a very  wdse  and  successful  choice  of  wudters  for  your 
happily-conceived  work.  I regret  to  say  that  it  would  be  impossible  for 
me  to  prepare  any  thing  worthy  of  the  subject  within  the  coming  six 
months,  as  I am  so  far  committed  to  other  enterprises  as  to  be  unable  to 
find  the  time. 

Wishing  you  great  and  continued  success  in  your  work  in  behalf  of 
the  Monumental  Church,  I am.  Yours  very  truly. 

Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  J.  F.  Hurst. 


5 West  Thhity-Fifth  Street, 

• New  York,  December  4,  1878. 

My  Dear  Sir:  I have  read  your  letter  of  28th  ult.  with  great  interest, 
and  if  I could  have  assented  to  your  request,  I should  have  felt  it  to 
be  a high  honor  to  be  associated  with  so  many  excellent  men  in  so  good 
a cause.  But  I am  already  working  up  to  my  very  last  pound  of  steam, 
and  I must  not  undertake  any  thing  extra.  Such  a paper  as  you  wish 
should  be  one's  best.  But  the  subject  is  rather  out  of  the  line  of  my 
studies;  I should  have  to  read  up  for  it  as  w’ell  as  write  on  it,  and  with 
my  present  duties  on  me  it  would  be  madness  for  me  to  attempt  any 
thing  more. 

Not,  therefore,  because  I have  no  interest  in  your  work,  but  rather 
because  I have  not  the  time  to  give  to  any  extra  literary  work,  I am 
compelled  to  ask  you  to  excuse  me.  Believe  me. 

Yours  faithfully. 

Rev.  j.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  Wm.  M.  Taylor. 


Philadelphia,  December  6,  1878. 

Dear  Brother : Yours  of  29th  ult.  is  just  received.  I am  much  pleased' 
with  the  character  of  the  work  you  are  about  to  publish.  The  titles  of  the 


20 


iNTRODirCTIOlSr. 


articles  and  the  names  of  the  contributors  must  secure  it  success.  I 
regret  to  say,  however,  that  it  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  contribute  an 
article  as  you  desire.  ...  I could  not  devote  an  hour  to  any  other  liter- 
ary work.  I have  been  obliged  to  lay  over  every  thing  else  on  aecount 
of  the  pressure  that  is  upon  me.  Wishing  you  success. 

Yours  truly. 

Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  M.  Simpson. 


Bible  House,  Kew  York,  Decemler  12,  1878. 
My  Dear  Sir:  Your  favor  of  November  28  was  received  this  morning. 
With  the  best  disposition  to  contribute  my  humble  share  toward  honor- 
ing the  memory  of  the  great  and  good  Wesley  in  your  proposed  volume, 
I must  reluctantly  decline,  as  my  time  and  strength  are  already  taxed  to 
the  utmost  tension.  Respectfully  yours. 

Rev.  J.  O.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  Philip  Schaff. 


Episcopal  Rooms,  708  Walnut-Street, 

Philadelphia,  January  11,  1879. 

Reverend  and  Dear  Sir:  In  reply  to  your  kind  and  interesting  letter 
of  the  3d  inst.,  in  reference  to  the  Wesley  Memorial  Volume,  I beg 
leave  to  say,  that  my  engagements  are  so  numerous  and  so  pressing,  that 
I caunot  conscientiously  undertake  the  work  you  suggest,  and  must, 
therefore,  respectfully  decline  your  kind  request. 

The  volume  which  you  contemplate  making,  will,  I doubt  not,  prove 
both  interesting  and  instructive. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Rev.  j.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  Wm.  Bacon  Stevens, 

Diocese  of  Pennsylvania. 

Xenia,  Ohio,  January  12,  1879. 

My  Dear  Sir:  Yours  of  November  29  came  to  hand  late  in  December. 
I am  in  sympathy  with  your  enterprise.  I think  it  a grand  one,  and 
hope  you  may  succeed  beyond  your  most  sanguine  expectations.  At  the 
same  time  I regret  that  numerous  unfinished  manuscripts  now  before  me 
will  consume  at  least  twelve  months  in  finishing  them.  They  are  official, 
and,  therefore,  cannot  be  laid  aside  for  any  other  work.  So  that  to 
overhaul  the  Journal  of  Wesley  in  order  that  I might  write  such  an 
essay  as  you  desire,  and  the  dignity  of  your  book  demands,  is  entirely 
out  of  my  power  at  the  present  time.  Very  respectfully  yours. 

Rev.  j.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.  Payne. 


IisTKODUCTIOjST. 


21 


IIethodist  Protestant  Board  of  Publication, 

Pittsburgh,  April  7,  1879. 

Mr  DEAR  Dr.  Clark:  The  announcement  that  you  had  undertaken  the 
preparation  of  a Wesley  Memorial  Volume,  by  which  to  perpetuate  the 
historical  associations  of  Methodism,  has  given  real  satisfaction  through- 
out our  Methodist  Protestant  Branch  of  the  Wesley  family.  Our  people 
are  thoroughly  Methodistic  in  doctrine,  in  usage,  in  taste,  and  in  all  the 
fraternal  sympathies  of  the  Gospel.  Ours  claims  to  be  a republic  of 
mutual-righted  preachers  and  people,  holding  the  faith  of  John  Wesley 
precious,  and  rejoicing  with  our  older  and  larger  sisters  of  the  Method- 
ist persuasion  in  a common  joy  at  tlie  constantly  enlarging  dominion  of 
this  many-agented  but  unifold  organization. 

The  spirit  of  the  world’s  Methodism  is  ever  the  same;  and  it  is  the 
spirit  of  love,  of  peace,  and  of  devotion.  Whatever  may  be  the  differ- 
ences of  polity  among  the  Methodist  branches,  the  life  and  power  are 
forever  one.  It  is  full  salvation  which  Methodism  proclaims  to  the  dy- 
ing world,  as  if  the  consecrated  messengers  knew  but  one  Lord,  one 
faith,  one  baptism,  and  shouted  the  glad  tidings  as  a one-hearted  song. 

Our  branch  of  this  happy  family,  whose  parish  is  the  Avorld  and  whose 
heritage  is  heaven,  unites  with  all  the  others  in  congratulation  that  the 
hallowed  garden-ground  at  Savannah  is  to  be  marked  henceforth  by  a 
monument,  not  as  over  a grave  but  as  over  a cradle ; for  your  service  is 
to  commemorate  the  new  birth  of  Christianity  in  the  wilderness ; to  re- 
cord the  consequent  life  and  beauty  of  Methodism ; and  to  foretell  the 
coming  glory  of  this  wonderful  manifestation  of  the  divine  favor. 
Yours  is  a gracious  privilege.  You  do  the  will  of  a vast  multitude. 
What  Plymouth  Rock  is  to  Congregationalism,  the  rich  soil  of  Georgia, 
where  Wesley  planted  Methodism,  is  to  a vastly  larger  host  of  Christian 
people  this  day.  The  Puritans  wrought  a work  in  America  worthy  of 
tlieir  rigid  integrity,  and  a million  voices  speak  blessings  on  their  names; 
but  the  doctrine  of  free-grace,  as  interpreted  by  the  scholar  of  Oxford, 
preaching  beneath  the  pines  and  palmettos  of  the  Kew  World,  has  found 
a welcome  in  a much  larger  multitude  of  exultant  souls. 

I greet  you,  dear  brother,  with  a warm  right  hand  in  your  most  com- 
mendable service.  Others  of  our  branch,  authorized  to  speak  for  us 
more  officially — President  L.  W.  Bates,  D.D..  of  Lynchburgh,  Virginia, 
and  Secretary  George  B.  M’Elroy,  D.D.,  of  Adrian,  Michigan — will 
doubtless  send  you  a message  of  becoming  ecclesiastical  recognition,  and 
I venture  to  speak  my  Amen  to  their  communication  beforehand,  or  in 
the  midst,  or  afterward,  wherever,  in  the  method  of  responsive  Method- 


22 


iNTEODUCTIOir. 


ism,  this  sincere  word  may  chance  to  strike  the  current  of  the  more  im- 
portant correspondence  from  the  body  to  which  I have  the  honor  to 
belong. 

And  may  heavenly  benedictions  crown  your  efforts  in  a thousand 
lingering  joys,  until  our  glory  is  complete  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord! 

Affectionately,  Alexajsidee  Claek. 

Before  dismissing  tliis  Introduction  it  should  be  stated,  that 
all  the  articles  in  this  volume,  except  a very  few,  were  written 
expressly  for  it,  and  have  appeared  nowhere  else.  And  of 
those  excepted  nearly  all  have  been  rewritten  or  especially 
arranged  by  their  res|)ective  authors.  For  the  poem,  “In 
Memoriam — Charles  Wesley,”  by  the  late  Benjamin  Gough, 
the  writer  is  indebted  to  Mr.  George  J.  Stevenson,  of  Pater- 
noster Row,  in  whose  excellent  work,  “The  Wesleyan  Hymn 
Book  and  its  Associations,”  the  poem  originally  appeared. 
The  Editor  takes  this  occasion  to  say,  that  to  no  one  while 
abroad  was  he  under  greater  obligations  than  to  George  John 
Stevenson.  For  so  much  patient  service,  at  the  cost  of  so 
much  labor  and  self-sacrifice,  and  for  so  many  delicate  atten- 
tions to  himself  and  other  American  strangers  in  the  great 
and  crowded  metropolis  of  England,  the  writer  of  this  will 
ever  pray  that  the  benedictions  of  Heaven  may  always 
rest  upon  Mr.  Stevenson  and  his  equally  kind  and  hospitable 
family. 

Eor  the  paper,  “The  Wesley  Memorial  in  Westminster  Ab- 
bey,” the  Editor  is  indebted  to  the  distinguished  personages 
who  shared  the  leading  parts  in  the  beautiful  and  appropriate 
ceremonies  which  witnessed  the  unveiling  of  the  Wesley  Mon- 
ument in  that  venerable  mausoleum.  The  hand  of  Dean  Stan- 
ley himself,  chief  speaker  on  the  occasion,  has  arranged  his 
address  for  publication  here.  And  to  the  same  worthy  Dean 
we  are  under  sj)ecial  obligations  for  permission  to  print  his  late 
address  before  the  Wesleyan  Childeen’s  TIome  of  London. 
This  address,  never  before  given  to  the  public,  revised  by 
Dean  Stanley,  and  printed  for  this  volume  at  the  press  of  the 


Inteoduction. 


23 


Children’s  Home,  was  sent  to  the  Editor  by  Mr.  T.  B.  Stephen- 
son, M.A.,  its  able  and  distinguished  president. 

To  Miss  Eliza  Wesley,  of  London,  grand-daughter  of  Charles 
Wesley,  the  poet  of  Methodism,  the  Editor  is  indebted  for 
two  tunes  by  her  father,  Samuel  Wesley,  and  one  by  her  late 
brother,  Samuel  S.  Wesley,  both  of  whom  were  eminent  mu- 
sical doctors,  and  musicians  to  the  English  Court. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Edmond  de  Pressense,  of  Paris,  pastor  of 
the  Reformed  Church  of  France,  whose  aid,  at  the  request  of 
the  Editor  of  this  volume,  was  procured  through  the  kind 
intervention  of  the  Rev.  M.  Lelievre,  of  L’Evangeliste,  Himes, 
and  whose  communication  was  sent  both  in  French  and  in  the 
English  translation,  the  Editor  has  the  pleasure  of  returning 
his  sincere  thanks. 

Many  have  been  the  letters  received  in  which  the  prayers  of 
the  writers  were  offered  up  for  the  success  of  the  W esley  Me- 
MOiiiAL  Yolume!  Writing  from  his  Irish  home,  in  Dublin, 
Dr.  Orlando  T.  Dobbin,  of  the  Church  of  England,  thus  con- 
cludes a letter  to  the  Editor  : 

“Allow  me  to  wish  yon  a favorable  voyage,  and  a return 
cargo  richer  than  that  of  a Spanish  galleon,  with  your  hand- 
some venture.  With  yonrseK  I anticipate  for  the  good  Ship, 
John  Wesley,  a hearty  welcome  in  every  port  the  bark  may 
touch  at.  Better  than  this,  I believe  and  hope  your  book  will 
do  real  good  to  souls,  and  lead  many  to  think  what  it  was  that 
wins  all  this  renown  to  your  once  humble  preacher  but  now 
exalted  saint.” 


A 


f 


W LESLEY, 


if' 


¥eslei  Memoeial  Yoleme. 


THE  WESLEY  FAMILY. 


H K righteous  shall  be  had  in  everlasting  remembrance,  is 


JL  the  declaration  of  the  psalmist ; and  the  truth  of  those 
words  was  probably  never  more  clearly  demonstrated  than  in 
the  family  of  the  Epworth  AYesleys,  but  more  particularly  in 
the  persons  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  the  founders  of 
Methodism.  In  almost  every  country  under  heaven  there  are 
to  be  found  adlierents  and  followers  of  John  Wesley  by  the 
name  of  Methodists  ; and  in  a much  wider  sense  the  influence 
of  Charles  Wesley  is  felt,  for  his  hymns  are  sung  by  Christians 
of  every  denomination ; and  whether  these  people,  spread  all 
over  the  earth,  acknowledge  their  indebtedness  to  those  two 
brothers  or  not  for  helps  in  their  religious  services,  the  fact  re- 
mains the  same. 

Though  at  first  despised,  insulted,  and  every-where  spoken 
against,  the  W esleys  persevered  in  the  glorious  work  which  they 
commenced  at  Oxford  about  the  year  1729,  and  which  assumed 
a more  definite  and  permanent  form  ten  years  afterward,  when, 
in  the  month  of  November  or  December,  1739,  John  AYesley 
commenced  the  “ United  Societies,”  which  have  spread  and  in- 
creased until  they  now  reach  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 
Now  the  question  arises  on  many  lips.  Who  are  these  AYesleys, 
and  whence  came  they  ? 


28 


The  Wesley  Memoeeil  A^olume. 


For  a period  of  two  hundred  and  eighty  years  nothing  was 
known  of  the  history  of  the  Wesleys  beyond  the  seventeenth 
century.  Dr.  Whitehead,  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  and  Dr.  Dobert 
Southey,  all  three  of  whom  wrote  what  they  considered  to  be 
elaborate  and  exhaustive  memoirs  of  the  Wesleys,  all  failed  to 
throw  even  a glimmer  of  light  on  their  early  history,  while 
one  of  these  learned  men  declares,  that  all  the  records  of 
the  family  of  an  earlier  date  than  the  reigns  of  the  Stuarts  in 
England  are  lost.  That  statement  has  no  foundation  in  truth. 
Records  do  exist,  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  get  a continuous 
genealogy  of  the  AVesleys  during  fully  one  half  of  the  Chris- 
tian era : but  the  three  learned  doctors  named  above  did  not 
persevere  in  their  researches  long  enough  to  receive  the  reward 
which  has  crowmed  the  perseverance  of  the  writer.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  we  are  indebted  to  a near  relative  of  the  Duke 
of  AVelliugton  for  the  gathering  together  and  completing  the 
Genealogical  Table  of  the  AVesley  Family,  so  far  as  it  is  com- 
plete, which  was  done  nearly  a century  ago.  It  is  a curious 
circumstance  that  about  the  period  these  inquiries  wei’e  being 
made  by  the  descendants  of  the  Earl  of  Mornington,  John 
AA^esley  should  have  made  the  declaration,  that  all  he  or  his 
family  knew  of  their  ancestry  went  no  further  back  than  a 
“ letter  which  his  grandfather’s  father  had  written  to  her  he 
was  to  marry  ” in  a few  days.  That  letter  was  dated  1619,  so 
that  Bartholomew  AFesley  was  then  a single  young  man.  Be- 
yond that  period  the  Ep worth  AVesleys  knew  nothing  of  their 
ancestry.  Had  they  known  what  we  do,  it  might  have  had  the 
effect  of  diverting  their  minds  from  that  great  work  which  has 
made  their  memories  so  precious  to  multitudes  of  peojJe  all 
the  world  over. 

In  the  annals  of  both  England  and  Ireland  the  AVesleys,  or 
AVestleys,  or  AVellesleys,  (for  they  exist  under  all  these  desig- 
nations,) have  a place  which  marks  them  in  successive  genera- 
tions as  among  the  foremost  men  of  the  age  for  loyalty,  chiv- 
ah’y,  learning,  piety,  poetry,  and  music : not  all  represented 


The  Wesley  Family. 


29 


in  any  one  person  or  generation,  bnt  in  tlie  snecessive  ages 
these  are  distinguishing  features  of  the  leading  members. 
These  marks  of  mental  and  moral  culture,  as  well  as  of  emi- 
nent natural  genius,  were  not  extinct  in  those  members  of  the 
family  who  have  but  recently  passed  away  from  earth  ; nor  are 
they  in  those  who  still  survive.  Wlien  the  venerable  Samuel 
Wesley  died,  in  1837,  it  was  acknowledged  by  those  who  knew 
him  best,  that  as  an  extempore  j)layer  on  the  organ,  or  as  a 
composer  of  organ-music,  he  had  but  few  equals  and  no  supe- 
rior ; while  in  the  person  of  his  son.  Dr.  Samuel  Sebastian 
Wesley,  who  died  as  recently  as  April  19th,  1876,  the  same 
surpassing  excellence  was  readily  accorded  to  him  as  had  been 
bestowed  on  his  father. 

Long  before  the  Normans  conquered  the  country  called  En- 
gland, the  Wesley  family  occupied  a prominent  place  in  the 
land.  Before  surnames  were  used,  and  before  England  was 
united  under  one  sovereign,  this  family  flourished.  When 
Athelstan  the  Saxon  ruled  in  this  land,  A.D.  925-910,  he  called 
Guy,  the  then  head  of  the  family,  to  be  a thane,  or  a member 
of  his  parliament.  This  Guy  married  his  kinswoman,  named 
Phenan,  the  daughter  of  an  old  chieftain  ; he  resided  at  Welswe, 
near  Wells,  in  Somerset.  His  son  was  Geoffrey,  who  occupied 
a prominent  position  among  his  Saxon  compeers,  and  having 
been  unjustly  treated  by  Etheldred,  he  joined  himself  to  the 
Danish  forces,  and  marched  with  Sweyn  against  his  own  coun- 
trymen. His  son  was  Licolph,  who  is  said  to  have  been  con- 
cerned in  the  murder  of  Edmund  the  Elder,  A.  D.  916,  and  he 
was  in  his  turn  murdered  on  his  way  home  to  Etingdon  many 
years  afterward.  His  eldest  son,  Walrond,  married  Adelicia 
Percy,  and  long  resided  on  his  ancestral  estate,  the  Manor  of 
Welswey,  and  died  there  about  A.  D.  1070,  leaving  two  sons, 
Avenant  and  William.  Both  these  persons  were  owners  and 
occupiers  of  large  landed  territory.  Avenant  obtained  the  ser- 
geantry  of  all  the  country  east  of  the  river  Peret  to  Bristol 
Bridge.  About  that  period  surnames  began  to  be  used,  or 


30 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume, 


terms  which  led  to  them ; hence  we  find  the  elder  of  these 
brothers  thus  designated  in  contemporary  records : Avenant  of 
Welswey,  or  Wesley;  while  the  younger  is  mentioned  as  Will- 
iam de  Wellesley,  who  married  Elene  de  Chetwynde.  The  son 
of  the  latter  was  the  heir,  whose  name  was  Roger  de  Welles- 
ley; he  married  Matilda  O’Neal,  and  left  issue,  two  sons  and 
two  daughters.  The  marriage  of  these  four  children  into  some 
of  the  principal  families  in  England  greatly  increased  the 
property  of  the  family,  and  extended  their  influence  in  the 
country.  Stephen,  the  heir,  married  Alice  de  Cailli,  county  of 
York.  He  having  distinguished  himself  Avith  Sir  John  Courcy 
in  the  wars  in  England  and  Gascony,  was  sent  with  Sir  John  to 
Ireland  in  1172,  to  try  and  subdue  Ulster.  Of  their  four  chil- 
dren, Walter,  the  youngest,  who  had  been  initiated  into  all  the 
arts  of  chivalry,  was  permitted  to  accompany  his  father  to  Ire- 
land, and  he  had  the  distinguished  honor  of  being  appointed 
standard-bearer  to  the  King,  Henry  II.,  who  led  the  warlike 
expedition.  For  his  military  services  in  Ireland  he  obtained 
large  grants  of  land  in  the  counties  of  Meath  and  Kildare,  and 
he  settled  in  that  country  on  his  property.  A standard,  sup- 
posed to  be  the  one  carried  in  1172,  was  preserved  in  the  Irish 
branch  of  the  family  to  quite  a recent  period.  The  Irish  Wes- 
leys became  a numerous  and  influential  family. 

Leaving  the  Irish  branch  of  the  Wesleys  to  the  heir.  Valeri- 
an, his  younger  brother,  Kicholas  de  Wellesley,  married  Laura 
Vyvyan,  daughter  of  a Cornish  Baronet,  and  inherited  the  En- 
glish estates  in  the  west  of  England.  He  was  engaged  in  much 
military  service,  for  which  he  was  amply  reAvarded,  and  left  is- 
sue four  sons  and  tAvo  daughters,  several  of  whom  married, 
by  Avhich  the  family  estates  were  again  increased.  William 
was  his  heir.  He  is  sometimes  called  Walrond,  and  was  grand- 
son of  the  standard-bearer.  He  married  Ann,  daughter  of  Sir 
William  Yavaseur.  Contemporary  history  mentions  him  as 
W alrond  the  younger,  a great  warrior ; he  was  slain,  with  Sir 
Robert  Percival,  in  a battle  Avith  the  Irish,  October  22,  1303, 


The  Wesley  Family. 


31 


aged  seventy  years.  For  liis  courage  and  conqnests  the  honor 
of  knighthood  was  conferred  on  him.  His  eldest  son,  Will- 
iam, was  also  slain  in  battle  vith  the  Irish.  His  yonngest  son, 
John,  became  the  heir  as  Sir  John  de  Wellesley,  Knight,  who 
married  a danghter  of  the  English  Wellesleys,  of  the  connty  of 
Somerset.  His  son.  Sir  John  de  Wellesley,  was  summoned  to 
Parliament  as  a baron  of  the  realm,  and  as  sheriff  of  Kildare. 
William,  the  younger  son,  became  the  heir,  with  the  title  Sir 
William  de  Wellesley.  He  was  one  of  the  most  influential 
men  of  his  time,  and  his  family  represented  interests  of  such 
magnitude  as  hut  seldom  concentrate  in  one  household. 

We  take  a new  starting-point  here,  as  from  this  center  there 
emanate  three  very  prominent  streams  of  family  life  and  influ- 
ence. Sir  William  was  married  to  Elizabeth,  by  whom  he  had 
one  son,  Edward,  and  three  daughters.  Edward  joined  the 
Scottish  army  during  the  Crusades,  and  set  out  with  Sir  James 
Douglas  and  the  Crusaders  to  Palestine  with  the  intention  of 
placing  the  heart  of  Robert  Bruce  in  the  Holy  Sepulcher  ; he 
died  in  a contention  with  the  Saracens  in  1340.  This  incident 
entitles  the  Wesleys  to  use  the  scallop  shell  in  the  qnarterings 
of  their  family  arms ; indeed,  the  Epworth  Wesleys  filled  their 
shield  with  that  feature  only.  While  these  events  were  trans- 
piring in  the  Holy  Land,  Sir  William  was  created  a peer  of  the 
realm  under  the  title  of  Baron  Horagh,  and  married,  for  his 
second  wife,  Alice,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Trevellion,  and  had 
issue,  four  sons,  named  Walrond,  Richard,  Robert,  and  Ar- 
thur. Robert  was  a monk,  and  died  unmarried.  Each  of  the 
other  sons  became  the  head  of  a distinguished  family,  whose 
descendants  have  come  down  to  our  times.  Their  father.  Sir 
William,  was  summoned  to  Parliament  as  a peer  in  1339,  but 
previously  he  had  received  from  Edward  II.,  in  1326,  a grant 
by  patent  for  the  custody  of  the  Castle  of  Kildare,  but  this 
was  afterward  changed  by  the  king  for  the  custody  of  the 
Manor  of  Demore  in  1342,  with  the  yearly  fee  of  twenty 
marks.  A grant  of  land  was  also  made  to  him  for  his  defense 


32 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


of  the  Castle  of  Diinlavon,  and  for  his  services  against  the 
O’Tothells,  (poM^erfnl  anti-royalists,)  one  of  whom  he  took  pris- 
oner. He  was  afterward  made  governor  of  Carbery  Castle 
in  Ireland,  by  Hichard  II.  He  died  at  a very  advanced  age. 
His  heir  was  Walrond.  His  second  son.  Sir  Richard  de  Wel- 
lesley, became  the  head  of  the  Wesleys  of  Dangan  Castle, 
comity  of  Meath,  in  Ireland,  from  vRom  descended  the  Mar- 
quis of  Wellesley,  Governor-general  of  India,  and  his  brother 
Arthur,  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  His  fourth  son,  Arthur, 
became  the  head  of  the  family  of  the  Wesleys,  in  Shropshire 
and  Wales,  who  in  the  Middle  Ages  took  the  name  and  estates 
of  Porter,  and  from  whom  descended  Sir  Robert  Ker  Porter, 
the  traveler  and  author,  and  his  sisters,  Anna  Maria  and  Mary 
Jane  Porter,  well-known  authoresses  of  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Walrond  de  Wellesley  married  into  the  family  of  the  Earl 
of  Ivildare.  He  succeeded  to  Wellesley  Manor,  county  of 
Somerset,  in  England,  leaving  to  his  brother  Richard  the  Irish 
estates.  He  accompanied  Prince  Edward  in  a military  expe- 
dition to  France,  and  subsequently  set  out  with  the  king  to 
check  an  invasion  of  the  Scots  in  Northumberland,  where  his 
brother  was  killed.  He  was  eventually  taken  prisoner  with  the 
Earl  of  Pembroke,  and  died  in  France,  13T3. 

Gerald  de  Wellesley,  third  Baron  Noragh,  succeeded  to  the 
estates,  but,  having  oSended  King  Henry  lY.,  was  deprived  of 
them,  and  was  imprisoned  for  some  years,  but  was  liberated  on 
the  accession  of  Henry  Y.,  in  1413.  His  estates  were  returned 
to  him,  but  the  title  of  nobility  was  refused.  He  had  issue, 
three  sons  and  three  daughters.  Arthur  was  his  heir. 

Arthiu’,  on  coming  to  his  inheritance,  took  the  name  of 
Westley.  He  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas 
Ogilvy.  Reheved  of  the  responsibilities  which  had  rested  on 
his  father,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  improvement  of  his  prop- 
erty and  to  the  extension  of  his  influence,  in  both  which  he  was 
very  successful.  Of  his  four  sons,  John  entered  the  Church, 


The  Wesley  Family, 


33 


Rieliard  married  one  of  the  Wellesleys  of  Dangan  Castle, 
Humphrey  married  the  daughter  of  Robert  Wesley,  of  West- 
ley  Hall,  and  Hugh,  the  heir,  obtained  the  honor  of  knight- 
hood, and  resumed  the  name  of  Wellesley. 

Sir  Hugh  de  Wellesley  married  into  the  family  of  the  Earl 
of  Shrewsbury,  ancient,  wealthy,  and  influential,  by  which  he 
recovered  much  of  the  position  his  grandfather  had  lost ; this 
was  further  increased  by  the  marriage  of  his  children.  BQs 
son  Richard  fell  in  battle  with  the  Irish  in  1570. 

William  de  Wellesley,  the  heir,  married  in  1532,  into  the 
family  of  the  Earl  of  Devon,  by  which  his  influence  was  greatly 
extended  among  the  nobility.  He  had  one  son  and  two  daugh- 
ters. One  of  the  latter  married  into  the  family  of  Wellesleys 
of  Dangan. 

Walter,  only  son  of  the  foregoing,  took  the  name  of  Wesley, 
or  AYestley,  and  married  into  the  wealthy  family  of  Tracey. 
They  had  issue  six  daughters  and  one  son. 

Herbert  was  the  only  son  of  Walter  Wesley,  and  had  the 
honor  of  knighthood  conferred  upon  him.  Sir  Herbert  mar- 
ried {temp.  Queen  Elizabeth)  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Robert 
AVesley,  of  Dangan  Castle,  Ireland,  by  which  event  both  the 
English  and  Irish  branches  of  the  family  were  again  united. 
They  had  issue  three  sons,  William,  his  heir,  Harphame,  who 
died  unmarried,  and  Bartholomew,  who  was  ordained  a priest, 
and  became  the  head  of  that  branch  known  as  the  Wesleys  of 
Epworth. 

William,  the  heir,  was  contemporary  with  King  James  I. 
He  had  issue  three  sons.  William  Wesley  was  his  heir,  and 
married  the  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Piggot.  He  had  two  sons 
and  two  daughters.  George  Arthur  AYesley  was  his  heir,  who 
spent  some  years  in  the  army,  and  squandered  most  of  his  prop- 
erty. He  was  twice  married.  Their  issue  was  one  son  and 
one  daughter.  Their  son,  Francis  Wesley,  bom  in  1767,  mar 
ried  Elizabeth  Bamfleld.  They  had  six  children.  Francis 
died  in  1851,  aged  eighty-seven  years,  his  wife  died  a few  years 


34 


Tins  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


previously,  aged  eiglity-two  years.  Alfred  Wesley  was  their 
heir,  born  in  1804,  and  married  Anne  Lilly.  They  had  issue, 
six  sons,  five  of  whom  are  now  living : one  is  a clergyman  in 
the  Church  of  England,  the  Eev.  Lewis  Llerbert  Wellesley 
W esley. 

Returning  to  Bartholomew  Wesley,  third  son  of  Sir  Her- 
bert Wesley,  we  get  to  the  source  from  whom  the  founders 
of  Methodism  were  directly  descended ; the  same  person 
of  whom  John  Wesley  wrote  in  the  brief  extract  previously 
given. 

The  Rev.  Bartholomew  Wesley  was  horn  in  the  county  of 
Dorset  about  the  year  1595.  Chivalry  held  high  rank  at  that 
period,  and  his  father  and  his  mother’s  father  had  been  brought 
up  under  the  strongest  impulses  of  that  mighty  infiuence. 
Great  deeds,  both  in  Church  and  State,  were  often  the  theme 
of  conversation  in  the  family  of  Sir  Herbert  Wesley,  and  chiv- 
alry, doubtless,  became  the  standard  of  aspiration  to  his  sons. 
Poetry,  as  well  as  religion,  laid  hold  on  chivalry,  and  took  some 
of  its  most  popular  themes  from  the  heroism  of  their  ancestors. 
Religion  was  no  strange  thing  in  their  household,  and  Puritan- 
ism was  developing  in  the  Hational  Church  when  Bartholo- 
mew Wesley  was  sent  to  Oxford  to  complete  his  education. 
He  studied  both  physic  and  divinity  at  the  University,  and 
about  the  year  1619  he  married  the  daughter  of  Sir  Henry 
Colley,  of  Kildare,  Ireland.  We  find  no  trace  of  any  family, 
excepting  one  son,  named  John,  who  has  had  his  name  perpet- 
uated in  the  annals  of  English  nonconformity.  From  the 
time  of  the  marriage  of  Bartholomew  Wesley  to  the  year  1640 
we  find  no  records  concerning  the  family,  but  in  that  year  he 
was  installed  Rector  of  the  small  parish  of  Catherston,  county 
of  Dorset.  To  that  small  living  was  added  that  of  Charmouth, 
the  two  being  of  the  yearly  value  of  £35  10s.  Out  of  that 
sum  he  had  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  a clergyman,  the  posi- 
tion of  the  son  of  a knight  of  the  shire,  and  educate  his  son 
for  the  ministry ! If  we  consider  the  privations,  persecutions. 


The  Wesley  Family. 


35 


and  siLfferings  which  this  good  minister  had  to  endure  in  tlie 
course  of  his  protracted  earthly  pilgrimage,  (for  he  lived 
through  more  than  fourscore  years,)  we  are  amazed  at  his  fidel- 
ity to  Christ  and  his  cause,  and  see  in  that  endurance  the 
same  spirit  as  that  of  which  St.  Paul  wrote  in  his  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  in  describing  the  faith  of  the  patriarchs. 

After  the  battle  of  Worcester,  in  1651,  King  Charles  II. 
wished  to  escape  to  France,  and  in  his  journeyings  he  came, 
incognito^  to  the  village  where  Mr.  Wesley  resided.  Being 
suspected  at  the  smithy,  where  one  of  the  horses  of  the  royal 
party  had  to  be  shod,  Mr.  Wesley,  as  the  minister,  was  appealed 
to,  and  steps  were  taken  by  him  to  try  and  arrest  the  fugitive 
king  ; but  the  king  escaped.  The  incident  brought  Mr.  Wes- 
ley into  notice,  and  contemporary  historians,  who  favored 
popery,  speak  of  him  with  contempt  for  his  conduct  on  that 
occasion.  Lord  Clarendon  calls  him  “ a fanatical  weaver  who 
had  been  in  the  parliamentary  army,”  and  again,  he  is  described 
as  “the  puny  parson.”  All  the  Wesleys,  for  three  hundred 
years,  were  of  small  stature,  ranging  between  five  feet  four 
inches  and  five  feet  six  inches.  Bartholomew  Wesley  was  one 
of  the  ejected  ministers  in  1662 ; so,  also,  was  his  son  John, 
who  was  then  minister  of  Winterburn-Whitchurch,  in  Dorset. 
The  merciful  providence  of  God  undertook  for  him  and  his, 
when  cast  upon  the  world  without  means,  and  one  of  his  neigh- 
bors wrote  of  him  in  1664,  that  “this  Wesley,  of  Charmouth, 
now  a nonconformist,  lives  by  the  practice  of  physic  in  the 
same  place  ” where  he  had  ministered  the  Gospel.  He  was 
afterward  exiled  from  his  home  and  friends,  and  had  to  endure 
fierce  and  cruel  persecution,  so  that  we  know  neither  the  time 
nor  place,  exactly,  of  his  death,  but  he  expired  about  the  year 
1680,  at  about  the  age  of  eighty-five  years. 

John  Wesley,  A.  M.,  only  son  of  Bartholomew,  was  born 
about  the  year  1636,  in  the  county  of  Devon.  Heceiving  a 
thorough  education  at  the  best  schools  in  that  county,  he  was 

sent  to  Oxford,  where  he  entered  New  Inn  Hall,  and  seems  to 
3 


36 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


have  received  special  help  and  favor  in  his  studies  from  Dr. 
John  Owen,  Yiee-Chancellor  of  the  Dniversity.  He  acquired 
considerable  learning,  took  his  M.A.  degrees,  left  college  about 
1658,  returned  home  to  his  father’s  house,  and  soon  gathered  a 
Church  at  Weymouth,  where  he  preached  for  some  months. 
A vacancy  occurring  in  the  parish  of  Winterburn-Whitchurch, 
John  Wesley  was  examined  by  Oliver  Cromwell’s  “Triers,” 
and  having  passed  with  approval,  was  appointed  by  them  to 
minister  in  the  vacant  parish,  in  May,  1658.  The  living  was 
valued  at  £30  a year,  and  on  that  pittance  he  commenced  his 
public  ministrations,  and  the  same  year  he  married  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  John  White,  “the  Patriarch  of  Dorchester,” 
and  one  of  the  members  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of 
Divines. 

Dr.  Callamy  tells  us  that  they  had  a numerous  family,  biit 
for  over  a century  the  names  of  only  two  of  their  children 
were  known ; subsequent  and  recent  inquiry  has  made  known 
the  following : Timothy,  born  April,  1659 ; Elizabeth,  born 
January,  1660 ; Matthew,  born  May,  1661 ; Samuel,  born  De- 
cember, 1662,  and  Thomas,  date  unknown.  John  Wesley, 
their  father,  endured  sorrows,  losses,  persecutions,  and  priva- 
tions of  the  most  painful  character,  and  they  brought  him 
prematurely  to  the  grave  in  the  year  1678,  at  the  early  age  of 
forty-two  years.  He  is  said  to  have  died  in  the  village  of 
Preston,  Dorset,  and  to  have  been  secretly  buried  in  the  night, 
as  the  royalist  party,  then  in  power,  refused  his  body  burial  in 
the  church-yard,  where  he  had  so  long  ministered  ! His  widow 
survived  him  thirty-two  years,  enduring  great  and  continued 
hardships,  supported  chiefly  by  her  two  sons,  Matthew  and 
Samuel,  the  latter  of  whom  spared  his  mother  (out  of  his  own 
small  income)  “ ten  pounds  a year,  to  keep  her  from  starving.” 
She  died  in  1710,  at  a village  near  Coventry.  Such  is  a brief, 
but  faithful  sketch  of  the  parents  of  Samuel  Wesley,  Rector 
of  Epworth,  and  the  grandparents  of  the  founders  of  Method- 
ism. 


The  Wesley  Family. 


37 


The  Epworth  Wesleys. 

History  can  scarcely  furnish  a more  doleful  picture  than  that 
which  was  presented  in  the  homes  of  no  less  than  two  thousand 
clergymen  in  England,  in  the  month  of  August,  1662,  a period 
known  as  “ black  Bartholomew,”  as  on  St.  Bartholomew’s  Hay 
that  number  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel  were  ejected  from 
their  homes,  their  livings,  and  many  of  them  from  all  sources 
of  income,  excepting  what  the  charity  of  neighbors  sup- 
phed.  John  Wesley,  then  a young  married  clergyman  of  only 
twenty-six  summers,  with  a young  wife,  and  three  very  young 
children,  was  ejected  from  his  living  at  Winterhurn-Whit- 
church.  Four  months  after  that  great  calamity  Mrs.  Wesley 
gave  birth  to  her  fourth  child,  on  December  IT,  1662,  and  they 
called  him  Samuel.  Born  in  the  midst  of  social  and  national 
troubles  of  more  than  ordinary  severity  and  continuance,  it  wa^ 
his  hard  lot  to  struggle  with  difficulties,  hardships,  and  almost 
penury,  duidng  nearly  sixty  years.  Surrounded  by  pious  influ- 
ences, he  was  yet  deprived  of  his  godly  father  while  a boy  at 
school,  and  his  devoted  and  pious  mother  had  a heavy  respon- 
sibility resting  on  her,  with  her  large  family,  so  that  Samitel, 
when  once  removed  from  her  home  and  sent  to  school,  knew 
nothine:  more  of  home  till  he  made  one  for  himself.  How 
he  struggled  for  a bare  subsistence  and  to  pay  for  the  best 
education  he  could  obtain  in  some  of  the  best  schools  and  at 
college,  is  a record  of  deep  and  appealing  interest,  even  now, 
after  the  lapse  of  two  centuries.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  he 
wrote  and  published  a book  called  “ Maggots,”  to  help  to  pay 
his  expenses  at  college.  Dr.  John  Owen  often  proved  his 
friend,  as  he  had  previously  been  to  his  father  before  him.  He 
took  his  B.A.  degree  in  June,  1688,  and  afterward  his  M.A. 
degree,  both  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Dr.  Thomas  Spratt, 
Bishop  of  Rochester,  gave  him  deacon’s  orders  August  7, 
1688,  and  he  was  ordained  priest  by  Dr.  Compton,  Bishop  of 
London,  February  24,  1689.  Both  those  prelates  were  at  Ox- 
ford with  his  father. 


38  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Voluivie. 

Tlie  same  year  he  had  a curacy  given  him,  with  the  liberal 
salary  of  £28  per  anmim.  For  a few  montlis  he  was  a naval 
chaplain,  at  the  handsome  salary  of  £T0  a year,  bnt  this  was 
soon  given  np  for  another  curacy,  at  £30  a year,  and  while 
holding  the  latter  preferment  he  earned  £30  more  by  his  pen  ; 
so  that  in  1689  he  was  passing  rich  on  £60  a year,  and  on  the 
strength  of  that  income  he  entered  on  the  marriage  state,  hav- 
ing for  his  bride  Susanna,  the  youngest  daughter  and  twenty- 
fifth  child  of  the  learned  and  pious  Dr.  Samuel  Annesley. 
Mr.  "Wesley  was  ordained  in  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew,  Hol- 
born,  and  he  is  believed  to  have  been  married  there  also.  ISTo 
man  was  ever  more  suitably  mated.  Mrs.  Susanna  Wesley  be- 
came the  mother  of  nineteen  children ; of  these,  her  three  sons 
who  reached  maturity,  Samuel,  John,  and  Charles  Wesley, 
occupy  each  a distinguished  place  in  the  annals  of  the  country 
which  gave  them  birth,  and  of  the  Church  in  which  they  were 
such  eminent  examples  of  piety,  earnestness,  and  devotion  to 
the  work  of  their  lives. 

Unable  to  live  in  London  on  £60  a year,  with  a wife  and 
child,  Mr.  Wesley  gladly  accepted  the  living  of  South  Ormsby, 
Lincolnshire,  where  six  children  were  born  to  them,  one  in 
each  year.  In  the'year  1696  the  living  of  Epworth  was  pre- 
sented to  him,  which  was  worth  £200  a year  at  that  time,  and 
which  woxild  have  been  a comfortable  living  biit  for  the  birth 
of  one  child  annually  in  the  family  for  nineteen  successive 
years,  the  falling  of  his  barn,  and  the  burning  of  the  rectory- 
house  twice.  The  costs  of  those  repairs,  with  his  heavy  family 
expenses,  and  much  affliction,  made  hfe  burdensome,  and  for 
forty  years  they  were  hardly  ever  free  from  debt,  part  of 
which  had  to  be  satisfied ‘by  the  incarceration  of  the  worthy 
rector  in  Lincoln  Castle.  Mrs.  Wesley  directed  the  education 
of  all  their  children,  preparing  the  boys  for  college  at  Oxford, 
and  the  girls  to  go  out  as  teachers  in  schools  for  young  ladies. 
The  success  of  Mrs.  Wesley’s  efforts  in  that  department  of 
home  duty  has  made  her  a model  for  all  English  women ; while 


The  Wesley  Family. 


39 


the  father  of  the  Wesleys,  as  the  Rector  of  Epworth  is  now 
called,  was  most  diligently  employed  in  pastoral  work,  in  prep- 
aration for  the  pulpit,  and  in  writing  books,  so  that  by  the  aid 
of  his  pen  he  might  add  somewhat  to  the  income  which  was  felt 
to  be  so  sadly  inadequate  to  the  wants  of  the  family.  He  died 
in  the  midst  of  his  family,  just  before  sunset,  April  25,  1735, 
aged  seventy-two  years,  saying,  a few  minutes  previously,  after 
reviewing  his  past  life : “ I thank  Him  for  all ; I bless  Him  for 
aU ; I love  Him  for  aU.”  He  was  interred  in  Epworth  church- 
yard three  days  afterward.  The  “ Gentleman’s  Magazine  ” of 
that  year  described  him  as  “ a person  of  singular  parts,  piety, 
and  learning,  author  of  several  poetical  and  controversial  pieces.” 

Susanna,  the  wife  of  Samuel  Wesley,  is  now  generally  des- 
ignated “the  mother  of  the  Wesleys.”  She  was  born  in  Lou- 
don, January  20,  1669.  This  remarkable  anecdote  is  related 
by  Dr.  Callamy,  in  reference  to  the  birth  of  this  child : “ How 
many  children  has  Dr.  Annesley?”  To  which  Dr.  Thomas 
Manton  replied,  “ I believe  it  is  two  dozen,  or  a quarter  of  a 
hundred.”  For  many  years  it  was  difficult  to  determine  which 
number  was  correct,  but  recent  research  has  proved  that  both 
numbers  are  correct.  She  was  her  father’s  twenty-fifth  child, 
but  she  was  the  twenty-fom-th  child  of  her  mother,  who  was 
Dr.  Annesley’s  second  wife.  Her  mother  was  the  daughter  of 
John  White,  a member  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Di- 
vines ; he  was  a man  of  considerable  infiuence  in  London,  who 
died  in  1644,  and  was  buried  with  much  ceremony  in  the  Tem- 
ple Church,  and  over  his  grave  is  a marble  tablet  with  this 
inscription : 

“Here  lieth  a John,  a burning,  shining  light. 

Whose  name,  life,  actions,  all  were  White.” 

It  is  curious  that  the  mother  of  Samuel  Wesley,  her  husband, 
was  also  a daughter  of  a John  White,  who  also  was  a member 
of  the  Westminster  Assembly. 

The  education  of  Mrs.  Wesley  was  thorough,  and  included  a 


40 


The  AVesley  Memorial  Volume. 


knowledge  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  also  Frencli.  She  excelled  in 
all  tlie  graces  and  accompHsliments  wliicli  a finished  education 
conld  bestow.  The  systematic  manner  in  which  she  con- 
ducted the  education  of  her  children,  and  the  remarkable 
success  which  she  had  in  her  efforts,  led  her  son  to  obtain 
from  his  mother  details  of  the  same,  which  he  published, 
and  these,  with  other  circumstances  arising  out  of  them, 
have  tended  to  invest  her  memory  with  imperishable  fra- 
grance, which  will  be  perpetuated  to  the  end  of  time,  wher- 
ever Methodism  is  known.  The  trials  and  difficulties  she  went 
through  were  so  numerous  and  protracted  no  language  can 
describe  them ; these  she  endured  almost  without  a murmur. 
She  lived  to  see  the  commencement  of  Methodism.  Her  last 
home  on  earth  was  the  residence  of  her  son  John,  at  the 
Foundery,  Moorfields,  where  she  peacefully  entered  into  rest 
July  23,  1Y42,  aged  Y3  years,  and  was  interred  by  her  son 
John  in  the  burial-ground  of  Bunhill  Fields,  London.  A mar- 
ble obelisk  to  her  memory  was  erected  in  1870,  in  the  front  of 
Mr.  Wesley’s  Chapel  in  the  City  Road,  about  two  hundred 
yards  from  the  spot  where  she  is  buried.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke, 
in  summing  up  the  incidents  of  her  life,  says : “ I have  been 
acquainted  with  many  pious  females  ; I have  read  the  lives  of 
others ; but  such  a woman,  take  her  for  all  in  all,  I have  not 
heard  of,  I have  not  read  of,  nor  with  her  equal  have  I been  ac- 
quainted. In  adopting  Solomon’s  words,  I can  say,  ‘Many 
daughters  have  done  virtuously,’  but  Susanna  Wesley  has  ex- 
celled them  all.”  Her  son,  Charles,  -wrote  his  “ Hymns  for  the 
Lord’s  Supper  ” shortly  after  his  mother’s  death,  and  he  is  be- 
lieved to  have  had  the  life  of  suffering  and  the  peaceful  death 
of  his  beloved  jjarents  in  his  mind,  when  he  wrote  the 
following  lines : — 

“ Who  are  these  arrayed  in  -white, 

Brighter  than  the  noonday  sun, 

Foremost  of  the  sons  of  light, 

Nearest  the  eternal  throne  ? 


The  Wesley  Family. 


41 


These  are  they  that  bore  the  cross, 

Nobly  for  their  Master  stood; 

Sufferers  in  his  righteous  cause, 

Followers  of  the  dying  God. 

“ Out  of  great  distress  they  came, 

Washed  their  robes  by  faith  below, 

In  the  blood  of  yonder  Lamb, 

Blood  that  washes  white  as  snow ; 

Therefore  are  they  next  the  throne, 

Serve  their  Maker  day  and  night; 

God  resides  among  his  own, 

God  doth  in  his  saints  delight.” 

Hek  Childben,  to  the  Third  and  Fourth  Generation,  rise 

UP  TO  CALL  her  BLESSED. 

Owing  to  tlie  burning  of  the  Epworth  rectory-house  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1709 — and  with  it  were  destroyed  all  the  parochial  regis- 
ters— the  record  of  the  births  of  their  nineteen  children  was 
lost.  After  many  years  of  inquiry  and  research  eighteen  out 
of  the  nineteen  have  been  found.  They  are  as  follows ; 


Children  of  the  Epworth  Wesleys. 


Name. 

"Where  Bom. 

When  Born. 

When  Died. 

1. 

Samuel  Wesley,  M.A., 

London, 

Feb., 

1690, 

Nov.,  1739. 

2. 

Susanna  Wesley, 

So.  Ormsby, 

Jan., 

1691, 

April,  1693. 

3. 

Emilia  Wesley, 

So.  Ormsby, 

Dec., 

1691, 

1771. 

4. 

5. 

Anuesley  Wesley,  ) 
Jedediah  Wesley,  f 

So.  Ormsby, 

1694, 

Jan.,  1695. 

6. 

Susanna  Wesley, 

So.  Ormsby, 

1695, 

Dec.,  1764. 

7. 

Mary  Wesley, 

So.  Ormsby, 

1696, 

Nov.,  1734. 

8. 

Mehetabel  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

1697, 

March,  1750. 

9. 

Infant, 

Epworth, 

1698, 

1698. 

10. 

John  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

May, 

1699, 

1699. 

11. 

Benjamin  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

1700, 

1700. 

12.  Bov.  1 

Epworth, 

13. 

Girl, 

May, 

1701, 

1701. 

14. 

Anne  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

1702, 

15. 

John  Benjamin  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

June, 

1703,, 

March,  1791. 

"16. 

Son,  smothered. 

Epworth, 

May, 

1705, 

May,  1705. 

17. 

Martha  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

1706, 

July,  1791. 

18. 

Charles  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

Dec., 

1707, 

March,  1788. 

19. 

Kezia  Wesley, 

Epworth, 

March, 

, 1709, 

March,  1741. 

42  The  "Weslet  Memoeial  VoLmiE. 

To  most  Metliodists,  the  cMef  interest  in  the  Wesley  family 
is  concentrated  in  the  Epworth  Wesleys.  For  any  service  of 
blessing  to  mankind,  all  the  labors  of  all  the  Wesleys  for  a 
thousand  years  past,  so  far  as  we  know  them,  ai’e  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  labors  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  numbered 
respectively  15  and  IS,  in  the  family  roll  as  given  above.  A 
few  words  respecting  each  of  the  childi’en  may  be  considered 
interesting. 

Samuel  Wesley,  the  first-born  of  their  large  family,  had  this 
peculiarity,  he  was  dumb  till  he  was  five  years  old,  then  com- 
menced to  talk  as  perfectly  as  any  child.  He  was  the  only 
child  in  the  family  who  went  to  any  school  apart  from  home. 
He  was  a scholar  in  Westminster  School.  In  1711,  through 
the  advice  of  Bishop  Atterbury,  he  became  a student  at  Christ 
Church,  Oxford.  He  took  his  M.A.  degree,  got  ordination, 
then  returned  to  Westminster  as  an  usher,  where  he  remained 
till  January,  1732,  when  he  was  appointed  head  master  of 
Blundell’s  School,  in  Tiverton,  where  he  died  rather  suddenly 
in  November,  1739,  about  a month  before  the  first  Methodist 
Society  was  organized.  He  had  strongly  opposed  his  brother 
John  in  his  evangehstic  labors.  He  n:^arried  Miss  Berry,  by 
whom  he  had  one  son  and  two  daughters ; the  son  died  young, 
the  daughters  mai-ried,  and  became  disconnected  with  the  Meth- 
odists. He  published  a volume  of  poems,  in  which  are  sev- 
eral good  hymns  which  have  a place  in  all  Methodist  Hymn 
Books. 

Susanna-,  the  first  of  that  name,. died  at  the  age  of  a httle 
over  two  years. 

Emilia  grew  to  woman’s  estate,  and,  after  enduring  many 
hardships  and  privations,  mai-ried  Robert  Harper,  a tradesman 
in  Epworth  without  a trade,  whom  she  had  to  keep  for  some 
years,  but  from  whom  she  was  afterward  separated,  and  her 
brother  John  became  her  protector  and  friend.  He  gave  her 
apartments  in  the  house  connected  with  his  chapel  in  West- 
street,  London,  where  she  died  in  peace  in  the  year  1771,  in  her 


The  TTeslet  Fahilt. 


43 


eiglitietli  year.  She  had  an  exquisite  taste  for  mnsie  and 
poetry. 

Annesley  and  Jedediah  have  their  names  recorded  in  the 
registers  at  Sonth  Orroshy,  vhere  they  vrere  both  baptized,  and 
died,  and  vere  bnried. 

Susanna,  the  second  daughter  of  that  name,  Tvas  taken  by 
her  uncle  Matthew,  in  London,  after  the  rectory-house  was 
burned  down  in  1709.  MTiile  she  was  yet  a girl  and  away  from 
home  her  mother  wrote  to  her  a long  letter  on  the  chief  arti- 
cles of  the  Christian  faith,  based  on  the  Apostles’  Creed,  which 
has  been  printed,  and  will  be  preserved  to  the  end  of  time  as 
a marvelous  theological  production  from  the  pen  of  a woman. 
She  afterward  married  Eichard  Ellison,  of  Epworth,  but  the 
.marriage  was  not  a happy  one,  and  they  were  separated.  She 
died  in  full  assurance  of  faith,  at  the  house  of  her  dausrhter 
Ann.  in  London,  in  1764,  leaving  four  children — ^two  sons  and 
two  daughters.  Her  descendants  are  now  a numerous  host, 
some  scores  of  whom  are  named  in  the  "Memorials  of  the 
"Wesley  Family,”  published  by  Phillips  A Hunt,  Xew  York. 

Mary  YT esley  was  of  a weak  constitution,  and  deformed  in 
body ; but  this  defect  was  compensated  for  by  a face  which 
was  exceedingly  beautiful,  and  by  a mind  and  disposition  al- 
most angelic.  In  1734  she  was  married  to  John  IFhitelamb, 
who  had  been  her  father  s §manuensis ; and  who  became  the  rec- 
tor of  W roote,  where  Mrs.  "Whitelamb  died  before  she  had  been 
married  a year.  She  had  been  the  household  drudge  at  Ep- 
worth, and  had  by  her  needle  added  much  to  the  comfort  of 
both  John  and  Charles  Wesley. 

Mehetabel  Wesley  was  in  personal  appearance,  in  accom- 
plishments and  genius,  the  gem  of  the  family.  She  was  the 
first  of  the  family  bom  at  Epworth,  and  as  an  infant  she  gave 
evidence  of  that  remarkable  art  and  mental  power  which 
marked  her  as  possessing  a combination  of  all  the  excellences 
of  the  Wesley  character.  Possessed  of  handsome  features, 
graceful  form,  winning  manners,  and  mental  powers  far  above 


44 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


her  years,  her  company  was  the  delight  of  all  who  knew  her. 
Alas,  her  career  proved  to  be  one  of  the  hardest  and  most 
checkered  of  all  the  family.  Opposed  by  her  father  in  her 
early  love  affairs,  she  at  length  threw  herself  away  on  a 
wretched  man  very  much  below  her  in  every  respect,  and  after 
giving  birth  to  several  children,  who  all  died  in  infancy,  she  at 
length  herself  sank  into  the  grave,  in  1750,  under  the  weight 
of  accumulated  griefs  and  sorrows ; but  she  has  left  behind  her 
some  few  specimens  of  her  poetic  genius,  which,  for  tenderness 
and  beauty  of  sentiment  and  expression,  will  live  to  the  end  of 
time.  She  was  a contributor  to  the  pages  of  the  “ Gentleman’s 
Magazine,”  and  her  own  memory  is  embahned  in  that  work  in 
some  very  touching  hues.  She  died  happy,  and  Charles  Wes- 
ley attended  her  funeral. 

John  and  Benjamin  Wesley  were  two  sons  who  both  died 
soon  after  their  birth,  but  around  whose  memories  their  moth- 
er had  entwined  such  kindly  associations  that  she  determined 
to  have  both  their  names  united  in  one  if  she  had  another  son. 
When,  in  June,  1703,  she  had  another  son  who  lived  to  be  bap- 
tized, she  had  him  called  John  Benjamin.  This  is  he  who  be- 
came the  founder  of  Methodism.  The  second  name  was  never 
used  after  infancy,  and  the  register  of  baptism  being  destroyed 
in  the  Epworth  fire,  this  fact  would  never  have  been  known 
but  for  its  preservation  as  a family  tradition. 

Twin  children,  a boy  and  a girl,  were  born  in  May,  1701 ; 
they  are  mentioned  in  a letter  written  by  their  father  to  the 
Archbishop  of  York  the  day  after  their  birth.  They  died  be- 
fore any  record  was  made  of  their  names. 

Anne  Wesley  was  married  to  John  Lambert,  a surveyor  of 
Epworth,  in  1725.  In  1726  John  Wesley  was  sponsor  at  the 
baptism  of  Mrs.  Lambert’s  first-born,  who  was  named  John. 
The  family  removed  to  Hatfield,  near  London,  where  all  trace 
of  them  was  lost  after  the  year  1742. 

John  Wesley,  A.M.,  the  Eounder  of  Methodism,  was  born 
in  June,  1703,  but  of  the  place  and  date  of  his  birth  there  is 


The  AVesley  Family. 


45 


no  existing  record  ; these  were  consumed  in  the  rectory  fire 
in  1709.  John  was  six  years  old  when  that  fire  took  place, 
and  the  manner  in  which  he  was  rescued  that  night  makes  his 
escape  with  life  one  of  the  most  remarkable  deliverances  from 
instant  death  upon  record.  He  was  baptized  by  his  father  at  Ep- 
worth  a few  hom’s  after  his  birth,  and,  by  desire  of  his  mother, 
was  named  John  Benjamin,  but  the  second  name  was  never 
used  by  the  family,  although  the  fact  itself  is  preserved  in 
documents  belonging  to  other  relatives.  Till  he  was  eleven 
his  mother  was  his  instructor ; but  in  1714  he  was  removed  to 
the  Charter-House  School,  and  in  1719  his  brother  Samuel  be- 
came his  tutor  in  the  AVestminster  School.  In  1720  he  was 
elected  to  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  He  Avas  ordained  by  Bishop 
Potter  in  1725,  at  the  age  of  twenty-tAvo,  and  his  excellent 
scholarship  and  efficiency  as  a teacher  in  the  University  secured 
him,  in  March,  1726,  a Fellowship  in  Lincoln  College.  In 
February,  1727,  he  took  his  M.A.  degree,  and  in  August  be- 
came his  father’s  curate.  September,  1728,  he  was  ordained 
priest  by  Bishop  Potter,  and  in  Hovember,  1729,  the  zealous 
young  men  he  had  gathered  around  him  were  first  called  Meth- 
odists. Until  1735  his  time  was  chiefly  spent  as  a tutor  in  the 
University ; he  was  with  his  father  at  Epworth  in  April,  1735, 
and  in  October-,  the  same  year,  he  sailed  with  General  Ogle- 
thorpe to  Georgia,  in  America.  From  February,  1736,  to 
December,  1737,  a period  of  nearly  tAvo  years,  John  AV^esley 
was  most  earnestly  and  diligently  employed  in  that  part  of 
America,  conducting  religious  meetings  which  correspond  to 
Methodist  class-meetings,  and  in  carrying  on  a Sunday-school 
there  forty  years  before  he  thought  of  such  a work  in  England. 

Leaving  America  December  22,  1737,  he  arrived  in  England 
February  17,  and  early  in  the  next  month  he  met  with  Peter 
Bohler,  from  Avhom  he  began  to  learn  the  plan  of  salvation  by 
faith  more  perfectly.  On  May  24,  1738,  he  experienced  that 
change  of  heart  which  completely  altered  the  whole  course  of 
his  religious  teaching;  and  the  simplicity,  earnestness,  and 


46 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


courage  wliich  lie  manifested  immediately  afterward,  in  preacli- 
ing  salvation  by  faith  alone,  was  marked  by  so  many  demon- 
strations of  spiritual  power,  that  thousands  crowded  to  his 
ministry,  whom  he  was  obliged  to  address  out  of  doors ; and 
in  that  way  the  Methodist,  or  United  Societies,  were  com- 
menced in  December,  1739. 

How  the  work  grew  and  spread  till  it  had  reached  all  the 
great  centers  of  population  in  England,  history  has  recorded. 
Details  of  that  marvelous  work  -will  be  found  recorded  in  the 
fourteen  separate  “Lives  of  John  Wesley,”  which  have  been 
published,  all  of  which  are  in  print. 

For  more  than  fifty  years  John  Wesley  labored  in  connec- 
tion with  these  Societies,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  March 
2,  1791,  there  were  in  the  world  belonging  to  the  Methodist 
Societies,  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  thousand  five 
hundred  and  forty-nine  persons.  At  the  present  time,  January, 
1879,  there  are  probably  not  less  than  five  millions  of  persons 
belonging  to  the  Methodist  Societies  all  over  the  world,  while 
the  total  number  of  worshipers  in  the  various  churches  and 
chapels  belonging  to  Methodism  is  probably  not  less  than  fifteen 
millions  of  persons  every  Sabbath  day.  Truly  may  we  say  in  the 
words  of  Mr.  Wesley  himself,  “What  hath  God  wrought ! ” 

The  sixteenth  child  on  the  roll  of  the  Ep worth  Wesleys  was 
a son,  who  was  born  May  8, 1705.  The  registers  having  been  de- 
stroyed, we  do  not  know  his  name ; but  the  Hector  has  recorded 
the  circumstances  of  his  death  in  a letter  he  wrote  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  in  which  he  says:  “ On  Wednesday,  May  30, 
being  the  election  day,  great  excitement  prevailed,  and  during 
the  night  his  nurse  overlaid  the  child,  and  in  the  morning  she 
found  him  dead  in  bed.  He  was  buried  the  same  evening.” 
This  child  has  not  been  noticed  by  any  other  biographer  of  the 
Wesley  family. 

Martha  Wesley  was  the  seventeenth  child  of  that  family. 
The  registers  being  burned,  we  have  only  circumstantial  evidence 
by  which  to  determine  the  time  of  her  birth,  which  appears  to 


The  Wesley  Faimlly. 


47 


have  taken  place  in  the  antnmn  of  tlie  year  1706.  From  in- 
fancy she  Avas  deeply  attached  to  her  brother  John,  whom  she 
resembled  in  person,  manners,  and  handwriting,  in  the  most 
remarkable  way.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  who  knew  them  both  per- 
sonally, said  that  in  their  conntenancps  they  could  not  be  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other.  She  spent  much  time  with  her 
uncle  Matthew,  in  London,  where  she  was  introduced  to  a young 
Oxford  student,  Westley  Hall,  one  of  her  brother  John’s  pupils, 
to  whom  she  was  married  in  the  summer  of  1735.  A more 
unfortunate  marriage  was,  perhaps,  never  recorded.  The  narra- 
tive of  her  married  life,  as  published  in  “Memorials  of  the 
Wesley  Family,”  is  one  of  extreme  sadness  and  suffering.  She 
was  left  a widow  in  1776,  after  which  period  her  brother  John 
took  care  of  her.  She  was  a woman  of  considerable  learning, 
deep  piety,  wonderful  patience,  and  of  captivating  speech.  She 
was  a great  favorite  with  the  learned  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  the 
leviathan  of  literature,  to  whose  society  she  was  frequently  in- 
vited, occasionally  with  her  brother  John,  and  her  niece.  Miss 
Sarah  Wesley.  She  had  a large  family,  but  all  her  children 
died  young.  She  survived  her  brother  John  only  four  months. 
She  was  the  last  survivor  of  aU  the  nineteen  children  of  her 
mother.  John  Wesley  left  her  a legacy  of  £40,  but  the  Meth- 
odists of  1791  were  too  poor  to  find  so  large  a sum,  and  she  died 
without  receiving  the  amount.  She  was  interred  in  the  same 
vault  as  her  brother  John,  being  in  her  eighty-fifth  year. 

Charles  Wesley,  A.M.,  the  poet  of  Methodism,  was  bom 
December  18,  1707.  It  is  a curious  fact  that  he  did  not  know 
his  own  age,  and  his  brother  John  and  sister  Martha  both  dif- 
fered in  their  opinion  concerning  his  age.  It  was  not  till  about 
one  hundred  and  forty  years  after  his  birth  that  a letter  was  found, 
written  by  his  father  in  1709,  by  which  the  age  of  Charles  is  satis- 
factorily determined.  He  is  there  by  implication  said  to  have  been 
fourteen  months  old  when  the  rectory-house  was  burned  down  in 
Febmary,  1709.  Charles  was  prematurely  born,  and  he  lay 
wrapped  up  in  wool  during  several  weeks  without  active  con- 


48 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


scionsness  until  the  exact  time  when  he  should  have  been  born ; 
then  he  began  to  cry.  He  was  feeble  and  delicate  during  all  his 
long  hfe.  Educated  by  his  mother  till  he  w^as  nine  years  old, 
he  w’as  then,  in  1Y16,  sent  to  Westminster  School.  He  was  there 
w'hen  Garrett  Wesley,  Esq.,  of  Dangan  Castle,  Ireland,  wanted 
to  adopt  him  as  his  heir.  Charles  determined,  after  several 
years’  entreaty,  to  refuse  the  adoption ; had  he  accepted,  it  is 
more  than  probable  England  would  have  had  no  Methodists, 
but  the  Wesleys  might  have  become  rich  and  great. 

Charles  Wesley  accepted  ordination  at  Oxford  in  1735,  where 
he  had  studied  since  1726 ; the  following  Sunday  he  was 
ordained  priest  by  Dr.  Gibson,  Bishop  of  London.  In  Oc- 
tober of  the  same  year  he  accompanied  General  Oglethorpe 
to  Georgia,  in  the  United  States  of  America,  as  his  private 
secretary.  Charles  brought  dispatches  to  England  from  the 
Governor  of  the  Colony  in  less  than  a year  after  his  first 
arrival,  and  he  did  not  return  to  America.  He  was  afflicted 
with  weakness  and  disease  for  several  years.  In  May,  1738, 
while  confined  to  his  bed  with  pleurisy,  at  the  house  of  T.  Bray, 
in  Little  Britain,  he  entered  into  the  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God.  His  conversion  was  clear,  and  it  influenced  for  good 
in  a marvelous  manner  all  his  future  life.  He  first  became  an 
itinerant  evangelist,  then  poet,  then,  uniting  both  vocations,  he 
thus  labored  on  for  nearly  fifty  years,  with  results  for  good 
which  are  marvelous  in  every  respect.  For  fifty  years  after 
his  death  his  manuscript  journals  were  concealed  in  a sack ; no 
one  knew  of  their  existence.  In  1841  they  were  found  and 
publivshed,  since  which  time  we  have  known  something  of  the 
variety  and  extent  of  his  ministerial  and  pastoral  labors.  In 
1749  he  married  Miss  Sarah  Gwynne,  a lady  who  would  have 
been  a rich  heiress  had  she  not  joined  herself  to  the  despised 
Methodists ; but  she  never  regretted  the  choice  she  made.  They 
had  a considerable  family  of  children,  but  only  three  of  them 
reached  mature  years,  Charles,  Sarah,  and  Samuel.  As  the 
poet  of  the  sanctuary,  Charles  Wesley  stands  in  the  foremost 


The  Wesley  Family. 


49 


place  in  all  Cliristencloin.  He  died  in  great  peace,  March  29, 
1788,  leaving  more  than  six  thousand  hjnnns  as  his  legacy  to 
the  Church ; and  quite  recently,  in  1876,  the  new  street  just 
made  by  the  side  of  the  house  where  he  lived  and  died,  has 
been  named  W esley-street,  in  honor  of  his  having  resided  there. 
He  was  in  his  eighty-first  year,  and  was  buried  in  the  grave- 
-NVard  of  old  Marylebone  Church,  where  also  are  interred  his 
wife  and  his  two  sons,  Charles  and  Samuel.  Mrs.  W esley  sur- 
vived her  husband  thirty-four  years,  dying  in  1822,  at  the  ripe 
age  of  ninety-six  years. 

Iveziah  Wesley  was  the  nineteenth  and  last  child  on  the  Ep- 
worth  roll.  She  was  born  one  month  after  the  burning  of  the 
rectory-house,  on  March  10, 1709,  and  about  fifteen  months  aft- 
er her  brother  Charles.  She  never  was  very  strong,  but  was 
tlioroughly  educated,  and  spent  the  few  years  of  her  maturer 
life  as  a teacher.  Afterward  she  was  much  in  attendance  on 
her  brother  Charles  during  the  periods  of  illness  which  fre- 
quently laid  him  aside  before  he  was  thirty  years  of  age.  Her 
last  days  were  spent  under  the  roof  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Piers,  of 
X Bexley,  John  Wesley  allowing  them  £50  a year  for  that  pur- 
pose. She  died  at  Bexley  in  March,  1741,  within  a few  days 
after  she  had  completed  thirty-two  years.  She  died  unmarried. 
Hers  was  the  last  death  in  the  family  which  their  mother  lived 
to  know  of.  Sixteen  months  afterward  Mrs.  Wesley  herself 
died  in  Loijdon. 

Of  the  three  children  of  Charles  Wesley,  the  first  and  sec- 
ond, Charles  and  Sarah,  died  in  advanced  life,  both  unmarried ; 
Charles  was  aged  seventy-seven  years,  and  Sarah  only  six 
months  short  of  seventy  years.  Their  biographies  have  been 
recently  written  for  the  first  time  in  the  “ Memorials  of  the 
Wesley  Family.” 

Samuel  Wesley,  the  youngest  son  of  Charles  and  Sarah  Wes- 
ley, is  the  only  member  of  the  family  from  whom  have  de- 
scended the  numerous  families  of  the  Wesleys  now  living. 
Samuel  was  born  on  St.  Matthias’s  Day,  February  24,  1766. 


50 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


He  was  born  a mnsical  genins.  At  the  age  of  six  years  he  had 
mentally  composed,  and  when  eight  wrote  ont  a complete  ora- 
torio, the  manuscript  of  which  is  still  preserved  by  his  daugh- 
ter, Miss  Eliza  Wesley. 

He  was  married,  first  in  1793.  Ont  of  many  children 
born  to  him,  there  only  reached  maturity  Charles  Wesley, 
D.D.,  who  for  many  years  was  sub-dean  of  the  Chapel-Royal, 
St.  James’  Palace,  and  one  of  the  chaplains  to  the  Queen  of  En- 
gland, and  who  died  in  1859 ; Emma  Frances,  their  next  child  ; 
and  the  next,  John  William  Wesley.  These  two  died  beyond 
the  age  of  fifty.  His  second  marriage  took  place  about  the  year 
1810  to  Sarah  Souter.  She  became  the  mother  of  four  sons 
and  three  daughters,  all  of  whom  are  now  living  excepting 
one,  the  oldest,  the  late  Dr.  Samuel  Sebastian  Wesley,  the  emi- 
nent organist  and  com|)oser,  who  died  in  April,  1876.  Their 
father,  Samuel  Wesley,  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished  or- 
ganists and  musical  composers  England  has  ever  known.  The 
story  of  his  life  surpasses  that  of  any  romance  for  exciting  in- 
terest and  wonderful  genius.  He  died  in  1837,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-one  years,  and  over  his  grave  was  sung  an  anthem  by 
the  most  skilled  choir  in  the  metropolis,  combining  exquisite 
music  which  will  never  be  surpassed.  His  distinguished  son, 
the  accomplished  Dr.  S.  S.  Wesley,  named  above,  died  at  the 
age  of  sixty-six  years.  The  other  members  of  the  family,  all 
living,  are  Rosalind  Wesley,  married  first  to  Rojbert  Glenn, 
then  to  Oliver  Simmonds;  Eliza  Wesley,  unmarried,  residing 
in  Islington,  the  same  age  as  Queen  Victoria ; Matthias  Eras- 
mus Wesley,  a distinguished  citizen  in  London,  associate  of  the 
institute  of  civil  engineers,  and  treasurer  of  the  college  of  or- 
ganists in  England;  John  Wesley,  who  was  some  years  a book- 
seller in  Paternoster  Row ; Thomasine  W esley,  married  to 
Richard  Alfred  Martin;  and  Robert  Glenn  Wesley,  married 
in  1858  to  Juliana  Benson.  There  are  about  sixty  children 
and  grandchildren  living. 


WESLEY  AND  METHODISM. 


HE  history  of  the  Church  may  be  divided  into  three  grand 


JL  epochs,  respectively  distinguished  by  certain  great  men  who 
were  each  the  embodiment  of  some  great  religious  fact.  The 
first,  beginning  with  the  creation  and  fall,  ends  with  the  fiood. 
Its  representative  men  are  Abel,  Enoch,  and  Hoah.  By  the 
offering  of  blood  through  faith,  Abel  attested  the  need  of  atone- 
ment to  obtain  forgiveness,  and  the  willingness  of  God  to  accept, 
through  that  medium,  the  sacrifice  of  a broken  heart.  By  his 
translation — the  reward  of  his  holy  walk  with  God  through  faith 
— Enoch  prefigured  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body.  And  ISToah,  by  faith  in  God’s  threatened 
judgment,  and  obedience  to  the  divine  command,  saved  himself, 
condemned  the  world,  and  proved  the  certainty  of  the  death 
pronounced  against  the  sinner,  and  the  life  promised  to  the 
righteous. 

The  second  epoch  extends  from  the  flood  to  the  coming  of 
Christ.  Its  representative  men  are  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Eli- 
jah. Mlien,  by  faith,  Abraham  left  his  father’s  house  to  so- 
journ in  the  land  of  promise  as  in  a strange  country,  and  after- 
ward offered  up  his  son  through  whom  he  received  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  promises,  he  discovered  beyond  the  grave  a city 
which  hath  foundations,  and  witnessed  to  the  power  of  grace 
to  endure  the  severest  trials  by  which  God  puts  to  the  test  the 
faith  of  his  people.  And  when  Moses,  esteeming  the  reproach 
of  Christ  greater  riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt,  refused  a 
crown,  he  made  evident  the  power  of  the  same  grace  to  deliver 
the  godly  out  of  the  subtlest  arts  of  the  tempter ; and,  as  part 
recompense  of  the  reward,  he  was  made  the  deliverer  of  the 
Hebrews  from  their  bondage  in  Goshen,  the  divinely  appointed 


52 


The  Weslet  Memorial  Volume. 


receiver  and  expounder  of  tlie  only  code  of  laws  given  by  Jeho- 
vah to  man,  and  the  only  one  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets 
to  whom  Christ  likened  himself.  The  Tishbite  raising  to  life 
again  the  dead  son  of  the  widow  of  Sarepta,  triumphing  over 
the  priests  of  Baal  in  the  trial  by  fire,  standing  upon  the 
mount  before  the  Lord  when  Jehovah  passed  by,  and  ascending 
to  heaven  in  a chariot  of  fire  borne  aloft  by  horses  of  fire,  dem- 
onstrated, as  the  name  of  the  prophet  implies,  that  Jehovah  is 
God,  and  the  fitness  of  the  prophet  himself  to  appear  afterward 
with  Moses  on  Tabor  as  a witness  of  the  transfiguration  of 
Jesus — the  Lord’s  anointed  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King. 

These  two  epochs,  embracing  the  periods  of  the  altar,  the 
tabernacle,  and  the  temple,  prepared  the  way  for  the  third  and 
last.  The  third — which  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  types  and 
prophecies  of  the  former — proclaimed  the  grandest  of  all  truths, 
the  culminating  fact  of  all  inspiration — “ God  is  a Spirit : and 
they  that  worship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.” 
This  epoch  stretches  from  the  birth  of  the  Baptist  until  the 
Lord  “ come  the  second  time  without  sin  unto  salvation.”  Its 
representative  men,  thus  far,  are  John,  the  Baptist ; St.  Peter, 
the  great  apostle  to  the  Circumcision ; St.  Paul,  the  great 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles ; Martin  Luther,  the  great  Protestant ; 
and  John  Wesley,  the  great  Methodist  Reformer. 

Our  purpose  not  allowing  us  to  notice  the  special  work  of  the 
representative  men  of  this  epoch,  excej)t  that  of  the  Founder 
of  Methodism,  we  proceed  first  to  briefly  epitomize  what  chiefly 
distinguishes  the  Wesleyan  period. 

If  asked  what  distinguishes  W esleyan  Methodism,  we  answer : 
It  is  a deliverance  from  the  severe  dogmas  of  Calvinism,  from 
antinomianism,  from  lifeless  forms,  from  the  fiction  of  an 
unbroken  apostolic  succession,  from  pharisaic  bigotry  and  intol- 
erance, and  from  bondage  to  the  mere  letter  of  ordinances.  It 
restored  and  sanctioned  lay-preaching — saying  with  Moses,  in 
spirit,  “Would  that  all  the  Lord’s  people  were  prophets, ^nd 
that  the  Lord  would  put  his  Spirit  upon  them.”  It  has  organ- 


"Wesley  and  Methodism. 


53 


ized  an  itinerant  ministry,  constrained  by  the  love  of  Christ 
and  willing  to  be  aU  things  to  all  men,  if  by  any  means  it  may 
save  some.  It  contends  for  a pure  and  spiritual  worship, 
belie’vdng  that  aU  times,  all  places,  and  all  forms  are  accept- 
able to  God,  being  sanctified  by  the  prayers  and  faith  of  the 
worshiper.  It  has  revived,  in  a restricted  form,  the  ancient 
agapce,  or  love-feasts.  It  has  restored,  under  the  name  of 
class-meetings,  the  meetings  in  which  the  early  Church  spoke 
often  one  to  another  to  edify  one  another,  and  to  provoke  unto 
love  and  good  works.  It  encourages  and  promotes  revivals 
of  religion  as  vital  to  the  health  and  growth  of  the  Church.  It 
preaches  a free  and  full  salvation,  justification  by  faith  alone, 
carefulness  to  maintain  good  works  as  the  evidence  of  the  gen- 
uineness of  faith  and  measure  of  final  reward  through  grace, 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit  to  the  behever’s  present  acceptance 
with  God,  holiness  of  heart  and  life,  devotedness  to  Christ,  a 
burning  love  for  souls,  missionary  zeal,  a true  catholicity 
toward  all  who  bear  the  image  of  Christ,  and  an  entire  reliance 
upon  the  Holy  Ghost  and  his  gifts  as  the  only  source  of  spir- 
itual power. 

j Methodism,  howevs^as  a system,  was  not  the  work  of  a day  ; 

I nor  did  it  spring  from  the  brain  of  Mr.  Wesley  a perfect  sys- 

I tern,  as  the  fabled  Athene,  full-panoplied,  from  the  brain  of 
•W  Jove.  It  has  grown  by  the  teachings  of  years  into  the  grand 
I system  it  now  is.  But  to  Mr,  Wesley  pre-eminently  belongs 
I the  honor  of  being  its  heaven-appointed  author  and  genitLs. 
Its  illustrious  founder,  however,  was  not  without  obligation  to 
others.  It  is  questionable  whether  he  would  have  met  any 
thing  like  the  unprecedented  success  that  cro’wned  his  labors  if 
he  had  not  been  seconded,  from  the  first,  by  those  who  were 
specially  qualified  to  push  forward  the  great  work  to  which 
they  were  mutually  called  of  God. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  the  early  Methodist  preachers  in 
America  were  unlearned  and  ignorant  men.  In  the  J anuary 
number  of  the  “ISTorth  American  Review”  for  1876,  in  the 


54 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volhme. 


leading  article:  “Religion  in  America,  1YY6-18T6,”  Dr.  Diman 
tells  us,  that  with  the  sole  exception  of  Coke,  none  of  the  preach- 
ers who  established  Methodism  in  America  were  educated  at 
college.  But  this,  however  true  of  American,  was  not  true  of 
British  Methodism,  or  of  Methodism  as  a system.  The  system 
under  which  the  early  preachers  in  America  labored  was  con- 
ceived and  set  on  foot  by  profound  thinkers,  wise  theologians, 
and  eminent  scholars.  It  is  doubtful  if  an  equal  array  of  learn- 
ing, talent,  and  genius  ever  stood  sponsors  to  any  other  Church 
since  the  days  of  the  apostles — certainly  never  did  such  a variety 
of  special  and  appropriat3  gifts  as  nurtured  Methodism  from 
its  very  birth.  True  it  is,  that  its  young  manhood  was  tried  by 
the  waves  of  the  stormy  Atlantic  in  the  ship  which  bore  Wes- 
ley, the  Moravians,  and  the  Salzburgers,  to  Georgia,  and  by  the 
persecutions  which  befell  it  in  the  wilderness  on  the  banks  of 
the  Savannah.  But  its  infancy  was  cradled  in  the  rectory  at  Ej)- 
worth  and  rocked  by  the  hands  of  Susanna  W esley ; and  its  early 
youth  was  nurtured  in  the  classic  halls  of  Oxford.  John  W esley, 
Charles  Wesley,  George  Whitefield,  William  Morgan,  James 
Hervey,  and  other  scholars  at  Oxford  were  its  earliest  professors. 
It  afterward  numbered  among  its  followers  John  Fletcher,  Adam 
Clarke,  Joseph  Benson,  Richard  Watson,  and  Thomas  Coke. 
And  who  are  these  ? John  Wesley,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College, 
Presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England — the  eminent  scholar,  pro- 
found logician,  with  talents  for  organization  and  governmunt 
that’would  have  qualified  him,  had  he  been  born  a prince,  to  be 
the  greatest  monarch  that  ever  sat  on  the  throne  of  Alfred — to 
plan  and  develop  the  system,  and  to  organize  and  direct  its  forces  : 
Charles  Wesley — whom  Dean  Stanley  calls  “sweet  psalmist  of 
the  Church  of  those  days,”  but  whom  we  call  the  sweetest 
singer  in  Israel  since  David,  Israel’s  great  lyric  poet,  swept  the 
chords  of  his  tuneful  harp — to  write  its  songs : George  White- 
field — the  greatest  pulpit  orator,  living  or  dead — to  preach  it  to 
the  multitude  : John  Fletcher  of  Madeley,  prince  of  polemics — 
with  wit  well-tempered  and  keen  as  blade  of  Saladin,  and  with 


Wesley  and  Methodism. 


55 


logic  ponderous  and  ernsMng  as  mace  wielded  by  arm  of  Coenr 
de  Leon,  but  with  heart  as  tender  and  loving  as  a woman’s — to 
defend  its  doctrines  : Adam  Clarke,  the  great  encyclopedic  and 
oriental  scholar  of  his  day,  and  the  learned  Joseph  Benson — 
to  write  its  Commentaries:  Eichard  Watson,  who  “soared,” 
said  the  great  Eobert  Hall,  “ into  regions  of  thought  where  no 
genius,  but  his  own  can  penetrate,”  and  who  was  “ the  only  sys- 
temizer,”  said  Dr.  Alexander  of  Princetonyi  “ who  in  theology 
approached  the  eminence  of  Tm'retin,  or  reasoned  like  Paley, 
and  descanted  hke  Hall” — to  write  its  Institutes  of  Theology : 
and  Thomas  Coke,  of  Jesus  CollegiJ;,  Oxford,  doctor  of  civil 
laws,  and  the  father  of  modern  missions — to  carry  Methodism 
“ into  the  regions  beyond.”  Such  were  the  authors  and  illus- 
trators of  Wesleyan  Methodism.  Well  may  it  challenge  the 
Churches  to  present  a greater  array  of  various  and  peculiar 
gifts ! 

When  these  things  are  considered,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Meth- 
odism has  made  comparatively  greater  progress  than  any  otlier 
evangehcal  Church.  Its  effects  are  seen  and  felt  not  only  in 
the  millions  who  have  hved  and  died,  and  the  millions  now  hv- 
ing  in  its  communion,  but  in  all  the  evangelical  Churches  from 
Wesley’s  time  to  the  present.  Martin  Luther  dehvered  the  hu- 
man mind  from  the  bondage  and  superstition  of  Eome;  John 
Wesley  rescued  English  Protestantism  from  the  dead  formal- 
ism and  sinful  lethargy  of  national  churchmanship.  Luther  re- 
vived the  Pauhne  doctrine  of  justification;  Wesley,  the  Paul- 
ine doctrine  of  sanctification.  Luther  showed  how  we  are 
justified  by  faith  alone ; Wesley,  how  by  faith  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb  we  are  cleansed  from  all  sin.  The  early  English 
Eeformers,  wisely  separating  from  the  Church  of  Eome,  set 
up  the  Church  of  England,  but  unwisely  held  on  to  certain 
unscriptm-al  dogmas  which  distinguished  the  corrupt  Church 
from  which  they  separated;  John  Wesley,  throttling  these 
dogmas,  proved  that  infallibility  is  an  incommunicable  preroga- 
tive of  the  Divine  mind ; that  apostolic  succession  depends  not 


56 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


upon  ordination  by  bishops  claiming  unbroken  descent  from 
St.  Peter,  but  upon  a call  to  the  ministry  sanctioned  by  the 
baptism  of  the  Spirit,  attested  by  the  gifts,  grace,  and  useful- 
ness of  him  who  is  called,  and  confirmed  by  his  presbyters ; 
and  that  grace,  whether  the  sacraments  be  administered  by  men 
with  or  without  episcopal  ordination,  is  communicated  to  all 
who  receive  them  with  faith  in  Christ.  The  same  reformers 
rescued  Enghshmen  from  the  civil  power  of  the  Pope,  but  de- 
livered them  over  to  an  imperious  king;  John  Wesley  gave  to 
this  union  of  Church  and  State  its  deadly  wound — a wound 
from  which  it  has  never  recovered,  and  from  which,  sooner  or 
later,  it  must  die,  whether  its  life  goes  out  with  the  convulsive 
throes  of  a final  struggle  or  qiiietly  ebbs  away  with  its  latest 
gasp ; a wound  which  W esley  dealt  it  when  he  organized  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America,  and  committed  its 
ordinations  and  its  sacraments  to  lay-preachers  consecrated  by 
the  imposition  of  his  own  hands  and  the  hands  of  his  co-pres- 
byters. 

The  Methodism  of  Wesley  is  every- where  felt  outside 
of  itself.  Its  true  mission  is  acknowledged ; its  claims  un- 
disputed. Chalmers  called  it  “ Chkistianity  in  earnest.” 
Judged  by  its  spiritual  power,  by  its  marvelous  effects  in  the 
awakening  and  conversion  of  souls,  its  scriptural  and  apostolic 
authority  has  received  the  highest  and  weightiest  sanctions. 
Hor  is  its  mission  ended.  Its  conquests  have  been  greater 
in  the  past  twenty-five  years  than  in  any  other  quarter  of  a 
century  of  its  history.  Its  field  is  still  “ the  world,”  not  only 
the  world  of  sinners,  but  its  sister  Churches,  to  lead  them  to  a 
higher  life  and  greater  devotedness  to  Christ.  And  this  will 
be  its  mission  so  long  as  Methodism  is  true  to  the  work  and 
genius  of  its  founder,  till  some  greater  than  W esley  arise,  com- 
missioned of  Cod  to  conduct  the  Church  to  higher  and  nobler 
things. 

The  spirit  of  Mr.  Wesley  projected  itself  not  only  into  the 
millions  called  by  his  name,  but  into  all  Christians  of  whatever 


Wesley  and  Methodism.  57 

name.  The  great  enterprises  of  the  evangelical  Churches 
Trhich  have  distinguished  the  last  century  and  a half  received 
their  origin  and  impetus  from  his  labors  and  zeal.  Mr.  Wes- 
ley Mas  a Mi’iter  and  distributer  of  tracts  long  before  the 
Society  in  Paternoster  Eow  had  an  existence.  John  Wesley 
and  Thomas  Coke,  seventeen  years  before  the  Eeligious  Tract 
Society  of  London  was  formed,  organized  the  first  Tract  So- 
ciety the  world  ever  had.  Methodism  gave  birth  to  the  I^aval 
and  Military  Bible  Society — the  first  Bible  Society  that  was 
ever  formed,  years  before  the  organization  of  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  The  great  missionary  awakening 
belongs  to  the  Wesleyan  period.  The  London  Missionary 
Society  and  the  Church  Missionary  Society  are  traced  directly 
to  Mr.  Wesley  and  his  preachers.  At  the  old  Foundery  in 
Moorfields  Mr.  Wesley  projected  and  started  the  first  Medical 
Dispensary  the  world  had  ever  known.  J ohn  W esley  and  Adam 
Clarke  founded  the  first  Strangers’  Friend  Society,  in  17S9. 
Before  Bell  and  Lancaster,  Wesley  provided  day  schools  for 
the  education  of  the  children  of  the  poor.  And  childi’en  were  , 
gathered  by  Mr.  Wesley  into  a Sabbath-school  in  Savannah 
nearly  fifty  years  before  Eobert  Eaikes  had  a Sabbath-school 
in  Gloucester.  The  leaders  of  the  great  revivals  of  the  pres- 
ent day  have  all  drank  into  his  spirit.  John  Wesley  preaches 
in  the  lay-sermons  of  Moody;  Charles  Wesley  sings  in  the 
songs  of  Sankey. 

The  power  of  Methodism  as  a pioneer  spiritual  force  was 
long  ago  acknowledged.  To  awaken  and  convert  sinners  hard- 
ened in  sin  ; to  reach  the  poor  and  outcast ; to  occupy  the  out- 
posts, or  to  be  thrown  out  as  skirmishers  in  time  of  a general 
engagement  with  the  powers  of  darkness — ^these,  and  things 
like  these,  were  said  to  be  its  mission.  But  how  different  the 
judgment  of  the  world  at  the  close  of  the  centennial  of  Meth- 
odism! Methodism,  especially  in  America,  has  been  the  pio- 
neer Church.  Its  axmen  have  plunged  into  the  wilderness, 
and  with  sturdy  strokes  felled  the  trees  of  its  forests.  Its  plow- 


58  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volujie. 

shares  have  turned  up  the  virgin  soil;  its  husbandmen  have 
not  only  committed  the  precious  seed  to  the  furrow,  watered 
the  tender  plant,  kept  it  free  from  weeds,  and  watched  its 
growth  with  sleepless  care,  but  they  have  thrust  in  the  sharp 
sickle,  reaped  down  the  fields  bending  to  the  harvest,  gathered 
the  loaded  sheaves  into  barns,  and  from  their  great  granaries 
supplied  famishing  millions  with  the  bread  of  life.  Method- 
ism, in  its  great  revivals,  has  been  to  the  nations  hke  the  river 
Kile.  It  has  often  overfiowed  its  hanks  and  spread  itself  far 
and  wide.  Its  fertilizing  waters  have  enriched  and  softened 
the  hard  soil  beneath,  and  prepared  it  to  receive  into  its  yield- 
ing bosom  the  harvest-bearing  seed;  and,  like  the  same  Egyp- 
tian river,  these  overflows,  in  their  results,  have  been  perennial. 

Methodism,  too,  has  not  only  carried  the  war  into  the  ene- 
my’s country,  but  taken  his  strongholds,  and  fortified  and  held 
the  places  it  has  won.  It  has  not  only  blasted  the  rock  out  of 
the  quarry,  but  given  form  and  beauty  to  the  shapeless  mass. 
Kor  is  its  elasticity  as  a working  power  confined  and  fettered 
by  forms  and  precedents.  The  swaddling-bands  of  the  cradle 
have  long  since  been  laid  aside ; the  toga-jjrmtexta  of  childhood 
exchanged  for  the  toga-virilis  of  manhood.  That  man,  indeed, 
but  little  understands  the  true  genius  of  Wesleyan  Methodism 
who  does  not  see  that  the  wonderful  elasticity  by  which  it 
adapts  itseK  to  times,  and  places,  and  circumstances,  is  one  of 
the  chief  characteristics  which  its  common-sense  founder  gave 
to  it  from  its  beginning.  Whitefield  preaches  in  the  open  air 
and  shocks  Wesley  by  his  irregularity;  Wesley,  when  driven 
from  the  pulpits  of  the  Establishment,  follows  the  example  of 
his  Oxford  disciple  and  is  soon  heard  addressing  multitudes  in 
Moorfields  and  on  Kennington  Common.  At  the  old  Eound- 
ery  Thomas  Maxfield,  without  orders  and  without  imposition 
of  hands,  warns  sinners  to  repentance,  expounds  the  word  of 
God  to  the  faithful,  and  arouses  Wesley’s  indignation  ; Wesley, 
acting  on  his  mother’s  advice,  hears  Maxfield  for  himself.  Per- 
suaded that  the  same  divine  power  attends  Maxfield’s  preach- 


Wesley  akd  Methodism. 


59 


ing  which  had  attended  his  own,  Wesley  from  that  moment 
makes  lay-preaching  a part  of  the  Methodist  polity.  Method- 
ism, extending  its  borders,  soon  numbers,  “ in  the  regions  be- 
yond,” thousands  without  the  sacraments.  Wesley,  seeing  that 
lay-ordination  is  a providential  need,  ordains  lay-preachers  for 
America  and  Scotland.  The  American  colonies  separate  from 
the  Enghsh  hierarchy  and  become  politically  and  ecclesias- 
tically independent;  the  ordination  of  Thomas  Coke,  to  be 
General  Superintendent,  or  Bishop,  over  the  Methodist  Soci- 
eties in  the  New  W orld,  immediately  follows.  And  when  these 
Societies,  in  General  Conference  assembled,  erect  themselves 
into  a distinct  and  separate  Church,  John  Wesley  sanctions 
the  deed,  believing  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
America  is  as  much  a New  Testament  Church  as  the  apostolic 
Churches  at  Phihppi  and  Thessalonica. 

All  that  has  been  here  said  about  Mr.  Wesley  and  Method- 
ism— and  much  more — is  now  confessed.  Lord  Macaulay  long 
ago  sentenced  to  oblivion  those  “ books  called  Histoeies  of 
Exglaxd,  under  the  reign  of  George  II.,  in  which  the  rise  of 
Methodism  is  not  even  mentioned.”  To  Mr.  Wesley  a pre- 
eminent place  in  history — especially  in  ecclesiastical  and  En- 
glish history — is  now  well-nigh  universally  assigned.  The  lit- 
erature of  the  eighteenth  century  was  leavened  by  the  optim- 
ism of  Pope  and  Shaftesbury,  and  the  skepticism  of  Hume  and 
Gibbon.  “ Its  theology,”  says  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  “ was  for 
the  most  part  almost  as  deistical  as  the  deists.”  The  picture  of 
English  hfe  drawn  by  Mr.  Wesley  in  his  “Appeal  to  Men  of 
Reason  and  Rehgion,” — the  irreligion,  false-swearing.  Sabbath- 
breaking, corruption,  drunkenness,  gambling,  cheating,  disre- 
gard of  truth  among  men  of  every  order,  and  the  profligacy  of 
the  army  and  immorality  of  the  clergy — was  no  over-drawn 
picture.  Leslie  Stephen  confesses  that  these  things,  “ described 
in  the  language  of  keen  indignation”  by  the  pen  of  Wesley, 
“lead  to  a triumphant  estimate  of  the  reformation  that  has 
been  worked  by  the  Methodists.”  “ The  exertions  of  Wesley, 


60 


The  "VVeslet  Memoeial  Volume. 


and  tlieir  success,”  lie  adds,  “ are  of  tliemselves  a sufficient 
jiroof  tliat  a work  was  to  be  done  of  wliicb  neither  the  rational- 
ist nor  the  orthodox  were  capable.” 

The  rehgion  of  England,  from  the  Eevolution  till  the  Meth- 
odist movement  pervaded  the  Establishment  with  its  spirit, 
says  Mr.  Lecky,  in  his  “ England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,” 
“ was  cold,  selfish,  and  nnspiritual.”  It  was,  however,  as 
he  tells  ns,  “ a period  not  without  its  distinctive  excellences.” 
“ To  this  period,”  he  writes,  “ belong  the  ‘ Alciiihron  ’ of 
Berkeley;  the  ‘Analogy’  of  Butler;  the  ‘Defense  of  Natural 
and  Bevealed  Behgion  ’ of  Clarke  ; the  ‘ Credibility  of  the 
Gospels  ’ of  Lardner ; as  well  as  the  ‘ Divine  Legation  ’ of  War- 
bnrton,  and  the  Evidential  Writings  of  Sherlock,  Leslie,  and  Le- 
land.”  But  “ the  standard  of  the  clergy  ” — especially  outside  of 
the  great  cities — “ was  low,  and  their  zeal  languid.”  Mr.  Lecky, 
therefore,  does  not  think  it  surprising  that,  at  such  a time,  a 
movement  like  that  of  Methodism  should  have  exercised  a 
great  power.  “ The  secret  of  its  success,”  he  says,  “ was  that 
it  satisfied  some  of  the  strongest  and  most  enduring  wants  of 
our  nature,  which  found  no  gratification  in  the  popular  theology, 
and  revived  a large  class  of  religious  doctrines  which  had  been 
long  almost  wholly  neglected.”  “ The  utter  depravity  of 
human  nature,”  he  adds,  “ the  lost  condition  of  every  man  who 
is  born  into  the  world,  the  vicarious  atonement  of  Christ,  the 
necessity  to  salvation  of  a new  birth,  of  faith,  of  the  constant 
and  sustaining  action  of  the  Divine  Spirit  upon  the  believer’s 
soul,  are  doctrines  which,  in  the  eyes  of  the  modern  evangelical, 
constitute  at  once  the  most  vital  and  the  most  influential  por- 
tions of  Christianity ; but  they  are  doctrines  which,  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  were  seldom  heard 
from  a Church  of  England  pulpit.  The  moral  essays,  which 
were  the  prevailing  fashion,  however  well  suited  they  might 
be  to  cultivate  the  moral  taste,  or  to  supply  rational  mo- 
tives to  virtue,  rarely  awoke  any  strong  emotions  of  hope, 
fear,  or  love,  and  were  utteily  incapable  of  transforming 


Wesley  and  Methodism. 


61 


tlie  cliaracter,  and  arresting  and  reclaiming  tlie  tlioronglily 
depraved.” 

ISTor  was  tliis  all.  The  healthful  influence  of  "Wesley  upon 
pohtics — though  not  a politician — was  no  less  signiflcant.  It 
was  due  to  him  more  than  to  any  other,  that  “ the  great  moral 
precedent  of  an  appeal  to  conscience  in  a political  question  ” 
was  first  established.  “The  religious  movement  of  Wesley,” 
says  Leslie  Stephen,  “ was  so  far  removed  from  any  political 
influence  that  Wesley  himself,  and  many  of  his  followers,  were 
strongly  conservative ; and  indeed  the  movement  itself  was, 
perhaps,  a diversion  in  favor  of  the  established  order.  It  pro- 
vided a different  channel  for  dangerous  elements.”  And  hence 
we  are  sure  it  was  owing,  in  a great  measure,  to  Wesley’s  pow- 
erfidly  conservative  influence  upon  the  thought  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  that  England  was  indebted  for  her  escape  from 
the  infidehty,  disorders,  and  horrors  of  the  French  Eevolution. 

“ The  evangelical  movement,”  says  Mr.  Lecky,  “ which  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  originated  with  W esley,  produced  a general 
revival  of  religious  feeling,  which  has  incalculably  increased 
the  efficiency  of  almost  every  religious  body  in  the  community, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  has  seriously  affected  party  poli- 
tics.” . . . “ The  many  great  philanthropic  efforts  which  arose, 
or  at  least  derived  their  importance,  from  the  evangelical  move- 
ment, soon  became  prominent  topics  of  parhamentai’y  debate ; 
but  they  were  not  the  peculiar  glory  of  any  political  party,  and 
they  formed  a common  ground  on  which  many  religious  de- 
nominations could  co-operate.” 

The  writings  of  Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopaedists,  the  meta- 
physics of  Condillac  and  Helvetius,  and  “the  wild  social 
dreams”  of  Rousseau  threatened  “the  very  foundations  of 
society  and  of  belief.”  “ A tone  of  thought  and  feeling,”  says 
Mr.  Lecky,  “ was  introduced  into'  European  life  which  could 
only  lead  to  anarchy,  and  at  length  to  despotism,  and  was  be- 
yond all  others  fatal  to  that  measured  and  ordered  freedom 
which  can  alone  endure.  Its  chief  characteristics  were,  a hatred 


62 


The  Wesley  Mejioeial  Volejme. 


of  Avell-constituted  authority,  an  insatiable  appetite  for  change, 
a habit  of  regarding  rebellion  as  the  normal  as  well  as  the 
noblest  form  of  pohtical  self-sacrifice,  a disdain  of  all  compro- 
mise, a contempt  for  all  tradition,  a desire  to  level  all  ranks  and 
subvert  all  establishments,  a determination  to  seek  progress,  not 
by  the  slow  and  cautious  amelioration  of  existing  institutions,  but 
by  sudden,  violent,  and  revolutionary  change.  Religion,  prop- 
erty, civil  authority,  and  domestic  life,  were  all  assailed ; and 
doctrines  incompatible  with  the  very  existence  of  government 
were  embraced  by  multitudes  with  the  fervor  of  a religion. 
England,  on  the  whole,  escaped  the  contagion.  Many  causes 
conspired  to  save  her,  blit  among  them  a prominent  place  must, 
I believe,  be  given  to  the  new  and  vehement  religious  enthusi- 
asm which  was  at  that  very  time  passing  through  the  middle 
and  lower  classes  of  the  people,  which  had  enhsted  in  its 
service  a large  proportion  of  the  wilder  and  more  impetuous 
reformers,  and  which  recoiled  with  horror  from  the  anti- 
Christian  tenets  that  were  associated  with  the  Revolution  in 
France.” 

Mhile  the  revolutionary  spirit,  which  was  of  foreign  birth, 
was  thus  menacing  the  established  order,  and  seeking  to  intro- 
duce political  and  religious  chaos,  England  was  threatened  from 
within  by  dangers  scarcely  less  portentous.  The  great  me- 
chanical inventions,  “ which  changed  with  unexampled  rapidity 
the  whole  course  of  Enghsh  industry,  and  in  a Httle  more  than 
a generation  created  manufacturing  centers  unecpialed  in  the 
world,”  gave  rise  to  an  angry  contest  between  capital  and  la- 
bor, between  rich  and  poor,  that  “ brought  with  it  some  polit- 
ical and  moral  dangers  of  the  gravest  kind.”  “But  few 
thinkers  of  any  weight,”  says  Mr.  Lecky,  “would  now  deny 
that  these  evils  and  dangers  were  greatly  underrated  by  most 
of  the  economists  of  the  last  generation.”  “ The  true  great- 
ness and  welfare  of  nations,”  he  adds,  “ depend  mainly  on  the 
amount  of  moral  force  that  is  generated  within  them.  Society 
never  can  continue  in  a state  of  tolerable  secui’ity  when  there 


Wesley  and  Methodism. 


63 


is  no  other  bond  of  cohesion  than  a mere  money  tie ; and  it 
is  idle  to  expect  the  different  classes  of  the  community  to  join 
in  the  self-sacrifice  and  enthusiasm  of  patriotism  if  all  unselfish 
motives  are  excluded  from  their  several  relations.  Every 
change  of  conditions  which  widens  the  chasm  and  impairs  the 
sympathy  between  rich  and  poor  cannot  fail,  however  bene- 
ficial may  be  its  other  effects,  to  bring  with  it  grave  dangers  to 
the  State.  It  is  incontestable,  that  the  immense  increase  of 
mannfacturing  industry  and  of  the  manufacturing  population 
has  had  this  tendency ; and  it  is,  therefore,  I conceive,  pecul- 
iarly fortunate  that  it  should  have  been  preceded  by  a relig- 
ious revival  which  opened  a new  spring  of  moral  and  religious 
energy  among  the  poor,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  a powerful 
impulse  to  the  philanthropy  of  the  rich.” 

But  these  benefits,  good  as  they  were,  were  not,  in  Mr. 
Becky’s  opinion,  the  greatest  triumphs  of  the  Methodist  re- 
vival. Its  chief  triumphs,  he  thinks,  “were  the  consolation 
it  gave  to  men  in  the  first  agonies  of  bereavement,  its  support 
in  the  extremes  of  pain  and  sickness,  and,  above  all,  its  stay  in 
tiie  horn’  of  death.”  These  results,  he  remarks,  were  in  some 
sort  effected  for  the  bereaved  and  dying  by  the  teachings  and 
ceremonies  of  the  priests  of  Rome.  But  this  was  done,  he 
believes,  by  connecting  absolution  indissolubly  with  complete 
submission  to  their  sacerdotal  claims ; and,  in  doing  this,  the 
Catholic  priests  framed  what  Mr.  Becky  calls  “ the  most  formi- 
dable engine  of  religious  tyranny  that  has  ever  been  employed 
to  disturb  or  subjugate  the  world.”  The  work  of  Mr.  Wes- 
ley and  the  evangelists,  he  says,  was  to  destroy  this  engine  of 
priestcraft.  It  was  they  who  taught  that  the  intervention  of 
no  human  being,  and  of  no  human  rite,  is  necessary  in  the  hour 
of  death.  It  was  they  who  demonstrated  that  they  could  “ ex- 
ercise a soothing  influence  not  less  powerful  than  that  of  the 
Catholic  priest.”  “The  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,” 
adds  Mr.  Becky,  “ which  directs  the  wandering  mind  from  all 
painful  and  perplexing  retrospect,  concentrates  the  imagination 


64 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


on  one  Saci’ed  Figure,  and  persuades  the  sinner  that  the  sins  of 
a hfe  have  in  a moment  been  effaced,  has  enabled  thousands  to 
encounter  death  with  perfect  calm,  or  even  with  vivid  joy, 
and  has  consoled  innumerable  mourners  at  a time  when  all 
the  commonplaces  of  jihilosophy  would  appear  the  idlest  of 
sounds.” 

“ This  doctrine,”  continues  Mr.  Lecky,  “ had  fallen  almost 
wdiolly  into  abeyance  in  England,  and  had  scarcely  any  place 
among  realized  convictions,  when  it  was  revived  by  the  evan- 
gelical party.  It  is  impossible  to  say  how  largely  it  has  con- 
tributed to  mitigate  some  of  the  most  acute  forms  of  human 
misery.  Flistorians,  and  even  ecclesiastical  historians,  are  too 
apt  to  regard  men  simply  in  classes,  or  communities,  or  corpo- 
rations, and  to  forget  that  the  keenest  of  our  sufferings  as  well 
as  the  deepest  of  our  joys  take  place  in  those  periods  when  we 
are  most  isolated  from  the  movements  of  society.  Whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  no  man  will  ques- 
tion its  power  in  the  house  of  mourning  and  in  the  house  of 
death.  ‘The  world,’  wrote  Wesley,  ‘may  not  like  our  Meth- 
odists and  evangelical  people,  but  the  world  cannot  deny  that 
they  die  well.’  ” 

Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  says  that  “Wesleyanism  is,  in  many 
respects,  by  far  the  most  important  j)henomenon  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,”  and  that  “ its  reaction  upon  other  bodies 
was  as  important  as  its  direct  influence.”  Mr.  Buckle,  the 
skeptical  author  of  the  “ History  of  Civilization  in  England,” 
confldently  affirms  that  the  effects  of  Wesleyanism  ujDon  the 
Church  of  England  were  hardly  inferior  to  the  effects  exerted 
by  Protestantism,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  ujDon  the  Church 
of  Borne.  And  when  he  compares  the  success  of  Wesley, 
whom  he  calls  “ the  first  of  theological  statesmen,”  with  the 
difficulties  which  Wesley  surmounted,  Mr.  Buckle  is  of  the 
opinion  that  Macaulay’s  celebrated  estimate  of  the  founder  of 
Methodism  is  hardly  an  exaggeration,  when  that  great  essayist 
and  historian  pronoimced  Wesley’s  “genius  for  government 


Wesley  ajstd  Methodism. 


65 


not  inferior  to  that  of  Richelieu.”  Bj  the  great  Methodist 
theoloerical  statesman  was  eifected,  “after  an  interval  of  two 
hundred  j^ears,”  what  Mr.  Buckle  calls  “ England’s  second  spir- 
itual Reformation.” 

But  in  this  connection  we  must  not  fail  to  notice  what 
Buckle  intended  as  a fling  at  Methodism.  He  condemns  it  for 
its  “mental  penury,”  because  it  has  produced  no  other  equal 
to  John  Wesley.  This  is  no  reflection  on  Methodism:  it  is 
directly  the  greatest  compliment  to  Mr.  Wesley,  and  indirectly 
equally  so  to  Methodism.  As  well  condemn  the  “ mental 
jjenury”  of  Christianity,  because  it  has  produced  no  greater 
apostle  than  St.  Paul ; or  the  “ mental  penury  ” of  the  Reform- 
ation, because  it  has  produced  no  greater  reformer  than  Martin 
Luther.  The  truth  is,  neither  Methodism  nor  the  whole 
Christian  Church  has  had  more  than  one  John  Wesley  since 
the  days  of  the  apostles.  As  Mount  Everest  lifts  its  tall  head 
not  only  above  every  other  peak  of  the  Himalayas,  but  above 
the  tallest  peak  of  every  other  mountain  range  in  the  wide 
world,  so  does  John  Wesley,  as  a revivalist  and  reformer,  tower 
not  only  above  the  other  great  men  of  Methodism,  but  above 
the  greatest  in  all  the  other  Churches  of  Christendom.  “ Tak- 
ing him  altogether,”  writes  his  latest  biographer,  Mr.  Tyer- 
man,  “Wesley  is  sui  generis.  He  stands  alone  : he  has  had  no 
successor ; no  one  like  him  went  before  ; no  contemporary  was  a 
co-equal.”  “ A greater  poet,”  writes  Dr.  Dobbin,  of  the  Church 
of  England,  “ may  arise  than  Homer  or  Milton ; a greater  theo- 
logian than  Calvin ; a greater  philosopher  than  Bacon ; a 
greater  dramatist  than  any  of  ancient  or  modern  fame ; but  a 
greater  revivalist  of  the  Churches  than  John  Wesley — never ! ” 

The  time,  indeed,  is  not  distant  when  every  historian  who 
regards  the  truth  of  history,  or  respects  the  judgment  of  his 
contemporaries  and  posterity,  will  give  to  Mr.  Wesley  his  true 
place  in  both  ecclesiastical  and  English  history.  High-church- 
men, against  whose  bigotry  and  intolerance  he  protested; 
rationalists  and  infidels,  whose  skepticism  he  refuted;  poets, 


66 


Tiee  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


historians,  and  essajdsts,  whose  irreligion  he  condemned ; and 
statesmen  and  philosophers,  whose  loose  morality  he  assailed  ; 
have  been  slow  to  acknowledge  his  powerful  influence  upon 
almost  every  phase  of  English  thought.  But  the  time  will 
come — if  it  has  not  already  come — when  all  will  say,  with  Mr. 
Lecky : “ If  men  may  he  measured  by  the  work  they  have  ac- 
complished, John  Wesley  can  hardly  fail  to  be  regarded  as  the 
greatest  figure  who  has  appeared  in  the  religious  history  of  the 
world  since  the  days  of  the  Beformation.”  With  the  same 
great  writer,  British  and  American  authors  will  confess  the 
obligation  of  England  and  America  to  those  religious  teachers 
who,  “ while  the  politicians  were  doing  so  much  to  divide,  w’ere 
doing  so  much  to  unite,  the  two  great  branches  of  the  English 
race.”  With  this  greatest  of  English  historians  since  the 
death  of  Macaulay  they  will  see — though  like  him  they  may 
think  it  “ a strange  thing  ” — how  it  was  “ that,  in  spite  of  civil 
war  and  of  international  jealousy,  a movement  which  sprang 
in  an  English  university  should  have  acquired  so  Arm  a hold 
over  the  hearts  and  intellects  of  the  American  people.”  And 
to  this  we  add,  they  will  further  see  how  it  was,  that,  by  a re- 
ciprocal inflrrence,  the  English  people,  forgetting  the  same 
enmities  and  conflicts,  have  been  drawn  so  closely  to  their 
American  cousins. 

The  most  brilliant  essayists  and  historians  who,  since  Wes- 
ley’s times,  have  written  specifically  on  English  thought  and 
English  civilization,  have  been  for  the  most  part  rationalists 
and  skeptics.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  they  who  are  such 
will  in  all  things  treat  with  fairness  one  with  whose  religious 
convictions  they  have  no  sympathy ; whose  enthusiasm  they 
call  fanatacism ; and  whose  holy  life  they  denounce  as  asceti- 
cism. What  Mr.  Wesley  magnified  as  of  chief est  importance 
is  foolishness  to  them.  It  cannot  be  understood  by  them,  be- 
cause it  is  only  spiritually  discerned.  Wesley’s  experience  in 
the  things  of  God  is  a mark  for  their  wit  and  ridicule.  Justi- 
fication by  faith  alone,  the  new  birth,  the  witness  of  the 


Wesley  and  Methodism. 


67 


Spirit,  heaven  and  hell,  'the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and 
eternal  judgment,  are  with  them  figments  worthy  to  be  classed 
with  the  vain  delusions  of  an  effete  mythology.  Having  no 
belief  in  the  eternal  verities  which  with  Wesley  were  convic- 
tions, they  regarded  his  writings  and  teachings,  while  w'eighing 
their  infinence  on  English  thought  and  civilization,  solely  in 
the  light  of  their  own  deistical  or  infidel  philosophy,  and  the 
language  of  those  who  are  considered  the  great  masters  of 
English  prose.  Judged  by  their  standard,  Wesley  has  exerted 
no  beneficial  influence  on  civilization,  like  Y oltaire  and  P aine, 
or  on  literature,  like  Rousseau  and  Hume.  He  added  nothing, 
they  tell  us,  to  the  philosophy,  nor  did  he  add  any  thing  to 
the  literature,  of  his  age.  He  added  nothing  to  its  so-called 
philosophy,  it  is  true ; but  he  rescued  many  thousands  from  its 
poison  and  death.  And  did  he  add  nothing  to  its  civilization  ? 
To  lead  a blameless  life  in  a corrupt  age,  and  by  precept  and 
example  turn  thousands  from  profligacy  and  vice  to  virtue  and 
holiness — did  this,  and  a great  deal  more  that  Wesley  accom- 
plished in  Church  and  State,  add  nothing  to  the  civilization 
of  England  ? 

The  writings  of  John  Wesley,  it  is  true,  have  not  the  splen- 
did diction  of  the  infidel  author  of  “ The  Decline  and  Fall,”  or 
the  classic  eloquence  of  that  other  infidel  historian  who  traced 
the  history  of  England  from  its  beginnings  down  to  the  close 
of  the  reign  of  James  II.,  last  of  the  Stuart  kings.  But  they 
have  been  read  by  millions  now  testing,  beyond  the  grave,  the 
realities  of  the  things  in  which  Wesley  believed,  and  by  mill- 
ions more  now  living  whose  religion  and  lives  have  been 
molded  by  the  great  truths  which  he  preached,  and  about 
which  he  wrote.  Judged  by  this  standard,  did  he  not  accom- 
plish far  more  than  any  other  religious  writer  of  his  day? 
Are  not  his  wiltings  even  now  influencing  more  minds  than 
the  writings  of  any  other  uninspired  religious  teacher  since 
Martin  Luther  wrote  his  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the 

Romans  ? W esley,  as  no  one  will  question,  was  a master  of 
5 


68  The  Wesley  Memorial  Yolhme. 

Englisli  thought  and  of  the  English  tongue.  Few  in  his  day 
were  more  skilled  in  Hebrew,  in  Greek,  and  in  Latin.  To 
him,  at  an  early  day,  the  principal  languages  of  the  continent 
of  Europe  were  familiar  studies.  Excellent  grammars,  in 
English,  of  several  of  these  tongues — the  old  and  the  new — 
were  made  by  Mr.  Wesley  at  a time  when,  in  England,  gram- 
mars in  English  of  the  ancient  tongues  were  things  unknown, 
and  philology  was  an  undeveloped  science.  His  translations 
from  three  of  the  languages  of  modern  Europe  are  among  the 
best  hymns  of  the  Wesleyan  Hymn  Book.  He  was  not  only  a 
master  of  tongues,  but  a master  of  logic  and  rhetoric.  His  edu- 
cation was  classic ; his  culture  all  that  the  oldest  English  uni- 
versity, severe  study,  a retentive  memory,  and  great  intel- 
lectual powers,  could  bestow.  If  he  had  formed  his  style  on 
the  classic  model  of  Tully’s  Epistles  to  Pomponius  Atticus — if 
he  had  copied  the  best  writers  of  the  Augustan  age  of  English 
literature — who  doubts  that  he  might  have  attained  preemi- 
nence in  the  realm  of  letters  ? Lord  Macaulay  says  : “ He  was 
a man  whose  eloquence  and  logical  acuteness  might  have  ren- 
dered him  eminent  in  literature.”  But  all  mere  literary  fame 
John  Wesley  sacrificed,  and  he  sacrificed  it  for  a purpose.  He 
who  would  not  wear  “ a fine  coat  ” that  he  might  satisfy  the 
hungry  with  bread,  laid  aside  “ a fine  style  ” that  he  might 
make  the  Gospel  of  our  salvation  plain  to  the  miners  of  Corn- 
wall, the  colliers  of  Kingswood,  and  the  felons  of  ISTewgate. 
His  words  may  not  have  been,  in  the  judgment  of  his  critics, 
“ with  excellency  of  speech,”  but  they  were  “ in  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit,  and  of  power.”  ■ Like  St.  Paul — whom  Wesley 
more  nearly  resembled  than  any  other  man  has  resembled  that 
great  apostle — Wesley  was  called  a babbler  by  the  Epicurean 
statesmen  and  philosophers  of  his  times.  The  Gospel  preached 
by  Mr.  Wesley  was  foolishness  to  Horace  Walpole,  but  to 
millions  it  has  been  “ Christ,  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom 
of  God.” 

But  let  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  the  skeptical  author  of  the 


Wesley  and  Methodism. 


69 


“ History  of  Englisli  Tliouglit  in  tlie  Eighteenth  Centnry,”  who 
tells  us  that  Wesley  “added  nothing  to  the  stores  of  English 
rhetorical  prose,”  and  that  his  “ writings  produced  nothing  val- 
uable in  themselves,  either  in  form  or  substance,”  say  what  he 
really  thinks  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  literary  powers.  “It  would  be 
difficult,”  says  this  writer,  “ to  find  any  letters  more  direct,  forc- 
ible, and  pithy  in  expression.  He  goes  straight  to  the  mark 
without  one  superfluous  flourish.  He  writes  as  a man  confined 
within  the  narrowest  limits  of  time  and  space,  whose  thoughts 
are  so  well  in  hand  that  he  can  say  every  thing  needful  within 
those  hmits.  The  compression  gives  emphasis,  and  never  causes 
confusion.  The  letters,  in  other  words,  are  the  work  of  one  who 
for  more  than  half  a century  was  accustomed  to  turn  to  account 
every  minute  of  his  eighteen  working  hours.”  “ W esley’s  elo- 
■ quence,”  says  tins  same  writer,  “ is  in  the  direct  style,  which 
clothes  his  thoughts  with  the  plainest  language.  He  speaks  of 
what  he  has  seen ; he  is  never  beating  the  air,  or  slaying  the 
dead,  or  mechanically  repeating  thrice-told  stories,  like  most  of 
his  contemporaries.  His  arguments,  when  most  obsolete  in  their 
methods  and  assumptions,  still  represent  real  thought  upon  ques- 
tions of  the  deepest  intei-est  to  himself  and  his  hearers.”  “We 
can  fancy,”  he  adds,  “ the  venerable  old  man,  his  mind  enriched 
by  the  experience  of  half  a century’s  active  warfare  against 
vice,  stained  by  no  selfishness,  and  liable  to  no  worse  accusa- 
tion than  that  of  a too  great  love  of  power,  and  believe  that  his 
plain,  heiwous  language  must  have  carried  conviction  and  chal- 
lenged the  highest  respect.”  After  thus  writing,  Mr.  Leslie 
Stephen  asserts  that  Wesley’s  “thoughts  run  so  frequently  in 
the  same  grooves  of  obsolete  historiaal  speculation^'^ — the  ital- 
ics are  ours — “ that  he  has  succeeded  in  producing  no  single 
book  satisfactory  in  a literary  sense.”  And  yet  we  venture  to 
say  that  Wesley’s  plain,  terse,  and  direct  English  had  almost  as 
much  influence  upon  what  Mr.  Buckle  calls  “ the^cumbrous 
language  and  long-involved  sentences  ” of  the  times  which  im- 
mediately preceded  the  great  revivalist,  as  his  preaching  had 


70 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


upon  a lethargic  Cliurcli  and  a sinful  world.  For  it  was  "Wes- 
ley’s powerful  influence — secret,  it  is  true,  but  none  the  less 
powerful — upon  the  literature  of  his  day,  which,  more  than 
any  thing  else,  discarded  the  old,  and  introduced  what  Mr. 
Buckle  calls  “ a lighter  and  simpler  style  ” — a style  “ more  rap- 
idly understood,”  adds  Mr.  Buckle,  and  “better  suited  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  age.” 

But  we  are  further  told  by  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  that  Wes- 
ley’s writings  possess  “ nothing  more  than  a purely  historical 
interest;”  that  Wesley’s  theology,  because  of  its  “want  of 
any  direct  connection  with  speculative  philosophy,”  is  “ con- 
demned to  barrenness  ; ” that,  having  “ no  sound  foundation  in 
philosophy,”  Wesleyanism  “has  prevented  the  growth  of  any 
elevated  theology,  and  alienated  all  cultivated  thinkers.” 

The  above  fairly  represents  much  of  the  criticism  to  which 
Mr.  Wesley  and  Methodism  have  been  subjected.  Its  author 
belongs  to  a class  of  writers  who  can  be  somewhat  just  to 
Methodism  when  it  comes  into  comparison  with  other  forms 
of  evangelical  Christian  thought.  But  while  their  testimony 
in  that  respect  is  invaluable — and  we  have  seen  what  it  is, 
for  we  have  put  them  on  the  stand  and  heard  their  witness 
for  Methodism  and  its  founder — these  writers  see  neither  in 
Methodism  nor  in  any  other  phase  of  thought  which  has 
the  plenary  insjjiration  of  the  Bible  as  its  basis  any  thing  ex- 
cept a weak  and  blind  superstition.  The  facts  of  the  great 
revival  they  affect  to  describe  with  the  fidelity  and  accuracy  of 
historians.  But  to  them  these  facts  are  mere  emotional  phe- 
nomena, or  phenomena  which  they  ascribe  to  mere  natural 
and  secondary  causes,  and  not  to  any  supernatural  and  divine 
power. 

And  has  the  great  revival  been  “ condemned  to  barrenness  ? ” 
Have  all  “ cultivated  thinkers  ” been  “ alienated  ” from  it  ? 
Has  Wesley  left  no  permanent  influence  on  Enghsh  thought? 
Ho  his  writings  possess  “ nothing  more  than  a purely  historical 
interest  ? ” How  is  it,  then,  that  his  followers  are  numbered 


Wesley  and  Methodism. 


71 


by  millions  ? How  is  it  that  these  are  found  aU  over  the  Chris- 
tian world,  numbering  thousands  whom  the  Christian  world 
regards  as  “ cultivated  thinkers  ? ” If  it  has  been  “ condemned 
to  barrenness,”  what  mean  its  myriad  Christian  temples  ? its 
many  hundred  universities,  and  colleges,  and  seminaries  of 
learning  ? its  many  thousand  educated  men  in  the  ministry,  in 
law,  in  medicine,  in  philosophy,  in  science,  and  in  government  ? 
"What  wiU  one  say  of  its  thousand  printing-presses?  of  its 
great  pubhshing  houses  ? its  newspapers,  its  magazines,  its  re- 
views ? its  tracts  and  books  ? its  great  benevolent  institutions  ? 
its  orphan  asylums?  its  homes  for  the  poor  and  outcast?  its 
great  missionary  and  Sunday-school  societies  ? What  means 
the  aggressive  force  which  constantly  enlarges  its  borders  ? 
How  is  it  that  in  a little  over  a hundred  years  it  has  accom- 
plished results  which  are  the  wonder  of  the  world?  How 
is  it  that  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  the  old  and  the  new,  it  is 
to-day  increasing  in  a greater  ratio  than  at  any  period  since  its 
beginning?  What  means  its  influence  upon  other  Churches, 
upon  their  theology  and  practice  ? Is  Calvinism,  or  any  other 
phase  of  Christian  theology  which  Wesley  combated,  the 
same  it  was  when  W esley  began  to  write  against  it  ? Have 
they  not  been  greatly  modifled  by  Wesley’s  teachings,  by  Wes- 
ley’s spirit,  and  by  Wesley’s  catholicity?  Since  Wesley  spoke 
and  wrote,  and  exemplifled  what  he  spoke  and  wrote  by  his 
own  beautiful  life,  have  not  the  evangelical  Churches  been 
drawing  nearer  and  nearer  together  ? Are  they  not  more 
sweetly  striving  together  for  “the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints  ? ” Is  there  not  a more  harmonious  endeavor  to  “ keep 
the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  ? ” 

And  have  Wesley’s  writings  “nothing  more  than  a purely 
historical  interest  ? ” How  is  it  that  there  are  over  a hundred 
thousand  Methodist  preachers  now  living,  who  have  not  only 
read  Wesley’s  sermons,  but  studied  them,  prayed  over  them,  and 
before  received  into  the  traveling  connection  been  examined  on 
them  ? And  who  will  say  how  many  thousand  more  are  now  in 


72 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


heaven  who  did  the  same  thing  ? And  has  this  great  army  of 
itinerant  and  local  preachers,  the  living  and  the  dead,  exer- 
cised no  influence  upon  English  thought  ? And  have  not  mill- 
ions of  pages  in  newspapers,  in  magazines,  in  reviews,  and  in 
tracts  and  books,  been  written  to  illustrate,  to  defend,  and  to 
enforce  the  writings  which  Wesley  left  to  his  followers?  The 
writings  of  what  other  religious  teacher  outside  of  revelation 
have  been  so  extensively  read,  or  left  a wider  and  deeper  trace 
on  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  and  heart  ? 

But  what  is  English  thought,  about  which  we  hear  so  much 
from  a certain  class  of  writers  ? W ith  them  it  means  not  the 
old  theology  of  Moses  and  St.  Paul,  nor  even  that  of  Socrates 
and  Plato ; but  it  means  the  old  philosophy  of  Leucippus, 
Democritus,  and  Lucretius,  and  of  their  disciples  in  skepticism, 
Hobbes  and  Ilume,  Voltaire  and  Pousseau,  Spencer  and  Dar- 
win. It  means  whatever  is  skeptical  in  thought,  whatever  its 
modifications  may  be,  whether  atheism,  deism,  infidelity,  ration- 
alism, or  whatever  is  included  in  what  is  called  the  speculatiA^e 
philosophy,  and  is  opposed  to  the  Bible  as  a written  revelation 
of  God  and  his  will.  This,  with  certain  writers,  is  the  whole 
of  English  thought.  The  “ cultivated  thinkers  ” are  all  found 
there,  and  nowhere  else.  Every  thing  else,  provided  it  savor 
directly  or  indirectly  of  revealed  religion,  is  excluded.  And 
yet,  perhaps,  not  all  of  revealed  religion.  For  if  one  profess- 
ing to  believe  in  the  sacred  Scriptures  so  interprets  them  as  to 
exclude  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the  doctrine  of  human  deprav- 
ity, the  necessity  of  repentance,  the  new  birth,  the  witness  of 
the  spirit,  holiness,  and  the  existence  of  heaven  and  hell,  espe- 
cially the  latter,  he  may  be  taken,  by  an  act  of  philosophic 
grace,  into  the  number  of  the  “ cultivated  thinkers.”  Such  an 
one  is  admitted  into  the  charmed  circle  of  speculative  philoso- 
phy because  he  is  only  half  a religionist  at  the  most.  He  is 
not  fully  in  the  light  of  the  true  philosophy,  but  he  is  not  alto- 
gether in  darkness.  There  is  hope  that  he  may  emerge  out  of 
the  dim  and  shadowy  twilight  of  a semi-philosophy  into  the 


Wesley  and  Methodism. 


73 


bright  and  unclouded  noon  of  the  philosophy  of  “cultivated 
thinkers.”  Hence,  perhaps,  Samuel  Clarke  and  Benjamin 
Hoadley  have  left  some  impress  upon  Enghsh  thought ; upon  it 
can  be  found  no  traces  of  Philip  Doddridge  and  John  Wesley. 
We  thank  God  that  these  devoted  ministers  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
added  nothing  to  English  thought,  as  English  thought  is  in- 
terpreted by  the  skeptics.  As  ah-eady  noticed,  the  only  influ- 
ence John  Wesley  exerted  upon  English  thought  in  their 
sense  of  it,  has  been  to  save  milhons  of  the  English-speak- 
ing race  from  its  blight  and  its  curse.  Had  it  not  been  for 
Wesley’s  burning  love  of  soids  for  whom  Jesus  died,  and  his 
apostolic  zeal  to  pluck  them  as  brands  from  the  burning ; had 
it  not  been  for  his  faithful  Gospel-preaching  in  church  and 
chapel,  in  barns  and  the  open  air  ; and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
thoroughly  evangehcal  tracts,  and  treatises,  and  hymns,  and 
sermons  which  came  troo^sing  from  his  unresting  jDen,  the  so- 
called  Enghsh  thought  would  have  embraced  millions  deliv- 
ered by  Wesley’s  labors  from  its  skepticism  and  death. 

If  John  Wesley  has  left  no  trace  upon  true  English  thought 
— not  the  English  thought  of  the  skeptics — how  is  it  that  his 
name,  his  life,  and  his  labors  are  now  filhng  a much  larger 
space  in  the  English  literature  of  the  day  than  those  of  any 
other  uninspired  Christian  teacher  that  has  ever  lived  ? How 
is  it  that  these  are  so  much  the  theme  not  only  of  the  religious 
newspapers,  and  magazines,  and  reviews,  and  books  issued 
from  Methodist  printing-presses  and  the  printing-presses  of 
other  evangelical  Churches,  but  of  the  secular  histories  and 
quarterlies  of  the  times  ? How  is  it  that  there  is,  at  this  mo- 
ment, a revival  of  thought  on  his  life  and  work  all  over  the 
world  ? How  is  it  that  so  many,  in  other  evangelical  Churches, 
are  emulating  one  another  to  do  honor  to  his  memory?  How 
is  it  that  even  the  skeptical  historians  of  English  thought  and 
of  Enghsh  life — though  they  do  not  give  to  him  the  full  place 
to  which  he  is  entitled— are  yet  assigning  him,  with  Mr. 
Buckle,  the  chiefest  place  among  “ theological  statesmen,”  and, 


74 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


witli  them  all,  the  highest  rank  among  Church  revivalists  and 
reformers?  And  how  is  it  that  the  Established  Church  of 
England,  from  whose  pulpits  he  was  so  rudely  shut  out,  is 
now,  though  late,  claiming  him  as  her  own — as  the  one  to 
whom  she  is  most  indebted  for  deliverance  from  rationalism 
and  French  infidelity  on  the  one  hand,  and  a lifeless  formalism 
and  an  arrogant  claim  to  Popish  infallibility  on  the  other  ? 

Witness  England’s  recent  tribute  to  the  Wesleys  ! A sculpt- 
ured memorial  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley  not  long  since 
was  unveiled  by  Dean  Stanley  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The 
worthy  Dean,  who  delivered  the  address  on  the  occasion,  spoke 
of  the  Wesleys  as  those  whom  the  Church  of  England  de- 
lighted to  honor,  and  hoped  that  no  one  would  deny  to  them  a 
place  in  that  venerable  mausoleum  of  England’s  noble  dead. 
Fitting  place  for  a sculptured  memorial  of  the  brothers ! For 
to  none  of  the  many  eminent  dead  whose  memory  that  splendid 
old  Abbey  perpetuates  has  England  been  more  indebted  than 
to  John  Wesley,  the  great  Methodist  reformer,  and  to  Charles 
Wesley,  the  great  Methodist  lyric  poet.  ISTor  is  all  acknowledg- 
ment of  England’s  indebtedness  to  the  Wesleys  a thing  of  such 
recent  date.  When  the  music  of  Charles  Wesley,  Jun.,  like  the 
effect  of  David’s  harp  on  King  Saul,  revived  the  spirit  of  King 
George  III.,  the  old  king,  laying  a hand  on  one  of  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  musician,  said:  “To  your  uncle,  Mr.  Wesley,  and 
your  father,  and  to  George  Whitefield  and  the  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  the  Church  in  this  realm  is  more  indebted  than 
to  all  others.” 

If  the  Bible  is  the  inspired  word  of  God ; if  God  out  of 
Christ  is  a consuming  fire ; if  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  pow- 
er of  God  unto  salvation ; if,  without  faith  in  Christ  as  the 
only  sacrifice  for  sin,  no  one  can  be  delivered  from  its  con- 
demnation and  guilt ; if  the  blood  of  Christ  alone  can  cleanse 
the  defiled  and  polluted  heart ; if  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  are 
the'  only  sure  evidence  of  acceptance  with  God,  and  holiness 
the  only  fitness  for  an  inheritance  with  the  sanctified ; if  Christ 


Wesley  and  Methodism.  75 

is  judge  of  quick  and  dead ; and  if  believers  in  Cbrist  are  re- 
warded with  tbe  crown  of  eternal  life,  and  all  unbelievers  pun- 
ished with  the  pains  of  eternal  death — then  an  impress,  greater 
than  that  made  by  any  other  Englishman,  has  Wesley  made 
upon  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  and  heart.  If  it  be  a supreme 
work  to  revive  a lifeless  Church  and  awake  it  to  its  true  mis- 
sion on  earth — to  be  instrumental  in  saWng  the  greatest  number 
of  souls  from  death,  and  to  exert  the  greatest  and  widest  influ- 
ence for  good  while  hving,  and,  when  dead,  keep  it  ahve  by 
the  recollection  of  a life  of  perfect  consecration  to  Christ  and 
unselfish  devotedness  to  the  best  and  highest  interests  of  man, 
— then  John  Wesley  must  be  regarded  the  greatest  of  English 
revivalists  and  reformers.  And  if,  after  death,  to  speak  to 
millions  of  the  Enghsh-speaking  race  in  the  writings  which 
one  has  left  behind  him  with  the  same  authority  with  which 
his  utterances  in  life  were  received  by  comparatively  a few 
thousand,  be  any  evidence  that  one  has  left  an  impress  upon 
English  thought — ^then  John  Wesley,  the  founder  of  Meth- 
odism, has  exercised  a more  powerful  influence  upon  true 
English  thought  than  any  other  Englishman,  living  or  dead. 
Einally,  if  John  Wesley,  claiming  the  world  as  his  parish, 
with  no  spirit  of  a sectarian  and  with  no  thought  of  founding 
a Church,  has  founded  a great  Church  which  has  been  instru- 
mental in  winning  more  trophies  to  the  Cross  of  Christ  than 
any  other — if  he  has  infused  his  own  apostolic  sjflrit  into  the 
other  evangehcal  Churches  and  made  them  better  witnesses  for 
Jesus  and  the  resurrection — then  John  Wesley  is  not  only 
“ the  greatest  figure  who  has  apppeared  in  the  religious  history 
of  the  world  since  the  days  of  the  Reformation,”  but  since  the 
apostles.  And  such  will  be  the  dehberate  judgment  which  the 
ages  will  pronounce  upon  the  life  and  labors  of  John  Wesley, 
“ who  devoted,”  says  Lord  Macaulay,  “ all  his  powers,  in  defi- 
ance of  obloquy  and  derision,  to  what  he  sincerely  considered 
the  highest  good  of  his  species.” 


WESLEY  AND  THE  CHHECH  OF  ENGLAND. 


The  Methodism  of  to-day  will  never  be  understood  until  the 
history  of  its  founder  is  rightly  understood ; and  neither 
the  history  of  Wesley  himself,  nor  the  character  of  his  life- 
work,  can  ever  be  understood,  until  it  is  recognized  that  his  life 
was  divided  into  two  distinct,  and  in  many  respects  sharply-con- 
trasted, periods — the  period  preceding,  and  the  period  following 
the  spring  of  1738.  Much  confusion  and  error  have  arisen  from 
faihng  to  recognize  the  critical  changes  and  the  momentous  de- 
velopments which  have  marked  the  course  of  certain  statesmen, 
who  have  been  unjustly  accused  of  treachery,  of  holding  at  one 
and  the  same  time  a medley  of  conflicting  opinions,  and  of  hav- 
ing lio  honest  and  real  principles  at  all.  Similar  confusion  has 
arisen  as  to  Wesley’s  opinions  and  principles  from  failing  to 
observe  the  fact  to  which  I have  referred.  The  opinions  of  his 
earlier  years  have  often  been  attributed  to  him  as  his  perma- 
nent convictions  and  principles,  although  he  had  abandoned 
them  flfty  years  before  his  death,  while  the  real  principles 
which  guided  all  his  course  as  the  founder  of  Methodism  have 
apparently  never  been  apprehended  at  all  by  many  who  have 
undertaken  to  pronounce  on  the  subject  both  of  Wesley  him- 
self and  of  the  community  which  he  founded.  It  is  my  pres- 
ent purpose  to  exhibit,  as  clearly  as  I can,  what  Wesley  was  after 
his  High-Church  views  were  abandoned  in  1738,  and  to  indicate 
also,  at  least  in  part,  how  the  Methodism  which  he  founded  was 
molded  by  the  principles  which  he  then  adopted,  and  which 
became  ever  afterward  the  controlKng  principles  of  his  life  and 
work. 

Let  1738  be  well  marked.  Wesley’s  inner  and  essential  High 
Churchmanship  belongs  to  the  period  preceding  that  date.  His 


Wesley  and  the  Chuech  of  England.  ^ 77 


Cliurelimansliip  in  after-life,  and  tlirongli  tlie  space  of  half  a 
century,  included  neither  high  sacramentarian  doctrine  nor  serv- 
ile veneration  for  rubrics,  nor  any  belief  in  either  the  virtue 
or  the  reality  of  what  is  commonly  called  “ the  apostolical  suc- 
cession.” 

Wesleyan  writers  take  their  stand  here.  I7one  have  shown 
so  distinctly  and  fully  the  rigid  and  excessive  Churchmanship 
of  Wesley  up  to  the  date  1738.  But  they  insist  that  from 
that  date  every  thing  was  essentially  different,  and  that  the 
essential  difference  very  swiftly  developed  into  striking  results. 

The  High  Churchman,  they  argue,  makes  salvation  to  be  di- 
rectly dependent  on  sacramental  grace  and  apostolical  succession. 
Wdiereas  the  Evangelical  Believer — the  man  who  has  received 
the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  as  it  was  taught  by  Peter 
Bolder,  and  as  it  is  understood  by  the  Reformed  Churches  in 
general,  learns  from  St.  Baul  that  “ faith  cometh  by  hearing, 
and  hearing  by  the  Word  of  God.”  Hence,  according  to  his 
conviction,  the  Christian  salvation— justification,  regeneration, 
and  sanctification — must  be  realized  by  means  of  the  “ truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus.”  Truth  and  life  are  for  him  indissolubly  associ- 
ated. He  cannot  forget  the  words  of  the  Word  HimseK : “ Sanc- 
tify them  through  thy  truth  ; thy  word  is  truth ; ” and  again, 
“ I am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life ; ” nor  the  words  of  St. 
Paul,  when  he  speaks  of  himself  and  his  fellow-workers  as 
“ by  manifestation  of  the  tnrth  commending”  themselves  “to 
every  man’s  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God.”  It  is  the  truth 
in  the  sacraments,  according  to  his  view,  which  fills  them  with 
blessing  to  those  who  receive  them  with  faith ; they  are  “ signs 
and  seals” — eloquent  symbols  and  most  sacred  pledges — but 
they  are  not  in  and  of  themselves  saturated  with  grace  and  hfe  ; 
they  are  not  the  only  organ  and  vehicle  through  which  grace 
flows  to  the  members  of  Christ’s  mystical  body,  altogether  irre- 
spective of  any  divine  truth  apprehended  and  embraced  by  the 
mind  and  heart  of  the  believer. 

They  admit  that,  up  to  1738,  Wesley  had  been  a High-Church 


78  ' The  Wesley  Memorial  Voluyie. 

Kitiialist,  but  they  insist  tliat  all  bis  life  afterward  be  taugbt 
tbe  Evangelical  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faitb ; that  be  very 
soon,  and  once  for  all,  discarded  tbe  “ fable,”  as  be  called  it,  of 
“ apostolical  succession ; ” and  that  be  presently  gave  up  all  tbat 
is  now  understood  to  belong  to  tbe  system,  wbetber  theological 
or  ecclesiastical,  of  Iligb-Cburcb  Anglo-Catbolicism.  “Tbe 
grave-clotbes  of  ritualistic  superstition,”  they  say,  “ still  bung 
about  bim  for  awbile,  even  after  be  bad  come  forth  from  tbe 
sepulcher,  and  bad,  in  bis  heart  and  soul,  been  set  loose  and 
free ; and  be  only  cast  them  off  gradually.  But  tbe  new  prin- 
ciple be  bad  embraced  led,”  as  they  affirm,  “ before  long  to  bis 
complete  emancipation  from  tbe  principles  and  prejirdices  of 
Iligb-Cburch  ecclesiasticism.” 

Such  language  as  this  may  seem  to  High  Cburcbmen  harsh, 
and  perhaps  uncharitable,  but  tbe  one  question  really  is,  how 
far  it  is  warranted  by  tbe  history  and  recorded  sentiments  of 
Wesley  himself  after  tbe  year  1738.  Modern  Weslcyans  can- 
not be  expected  to  be  more  Higb-Cburcb  than  their  founder. 
I propose,  accordingly,  to  show  now,  in  some  detail,  what  Wes- 
ley did  actually  claim  and  hold  as  to  matters  ecclesiastical 
during  the  half-century  which  followed  bis  “ conversion.” 
Ecclesiastical  claims  and  theories  are  founded  on  theological 
dogmas.  We  shall  see  bow  tbe  newly-received  doctrines  of 
grace  and  of  faitb  gave  color  and  form  to  tbe  ecclesiastical  prin- 
ciples of  the  founder  of  Methodism. 

It  is  bard  to  conceive  views  as  to  tbe  public  ministry  of  the 
word,  and  tbe  government  and  discipline  of  the  Church,  more 
hazardous  and  untenable,  according  to  tbe  standard  of  High 
Cburcbmen,  than  those  which  were  maintained  by  John 
W esley. 

^>1  He  held,  as  I will  presently  show,  after  the  year  1745,  tbat 
! tbe  office  of  presbyter  or  priest  and  tbat  of  bishop  being  orig- 
inally and  essentially  one,  be,  as  a presbyter,  bad  the  abstract 
and  essential  right  to  ordain  presbyters,  in  a new  sphere — a 
sphere  of  his  own  creation,  so  to  speak — if  by  his  so  doing 


Wesley  and  the  Chhech  of  England.  79 


neither  he  nor  they  whom  he  ordained  became  intruders  into 
other  commnnions,  or  trespassers  within  other  jurisdictions. 
Acting  on  this  principle,  he  ordained  “ presbyters,”  and  evmn 
“ siTperintendents,”  * or  bishops,  for  America  ; he  ordained 
presbyters  for  Scotland ; and  eventually  even  conceived  him- 
seK  to  be  constrained  to  ordain  presbyters  to  assist  him  in  ad- 
ministering the  sacraments  to  his  own  Societies  in  England,  one 
of  his  strong  pleas  being,  that  the  clergy,  in  many  instances, 
would  not  admit  his  people  to  the  Lord’s  Supper.  Indeed, 
there  is  high  authority — the  authority  of  Samuel  Bradbiirn, 
one  of  his  ablest  and  most  eminent  preachers — for  saying  that 
Wesley  went  so  far,  at  the  Conference  of  1788,  as  to  consecrate 
one  of  his  English  preachers  as  “superintendent,”  or  bishop. 
The  Methodist  Conference  did  but  extend  this  principle  to 
its  obvious  consequences  when,  a few  years  after  his  death, 
those  of  them  whom  Wesley  had  already  ordained  were  pre- 
sumed to  have  the  power  to  share  their  prerogatives  with  their 
brethren  and  partners  in  common  charge  of  the  Societies,  so 
that  all  the  Societies  which  desired  it  might  receive  the  sacra- 
ments from  their  own  preachers. 

Quite  as  radical,  indeed,  as  any  opinion  of  a modern  Meth- 
odist on  these  points,  and  far  more  startling,  as  coming  from 
John  Wesley,  is  the  following  passage  contained  in  the  Min- 
utes of  Conference  for  the  year  already  noted,  1745  : 

Q.  1.  Can  he  be  a spiritual  governor  of  the  Church  who  is  not  a be- 
liever nor  member  of  it  ? 

A.  It  seems  not;  though  he  maybe  a governor  in  outward  things  by  a 
power  derived  from  the  King. 

Q.  2.  What  are  properly  the  laws  of  the  Church  of  England  ? 

A.  The  rubrics  ; and  to  those  we  submit  as  the  ordinance  of  man,  for 
the  Lord’s  sake. 


* In  Wesley’s  time,  the  senior  preacher  in  charge  was  called  “ assistant,”  not,  as 
now,  “superintendent,”  and  the  junior  preachers,  “helpers.”  “Superintendent,” 
in  Wesley’s  ecclesiastical  nomenclature,  meant  “bishop;”  he  held,  of  course, 
that  his  “superintendents,”  or  “bishops,”  were  not  in  order,  but  only  in  office, 
distinguished  from  presbyters. 


80 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


Q.  3.  But  is  not  the  will  of  our  governors  a law? 

A.  No;  not  of  any  governor,  temporal  or  spiritual.  Therefore,  if  any 
bishop  wills  that  I should  not  preach  the  Gospel,  his  will  is  no  law  to 
me. 

Q.  4.  But  what  if  he  produce  a law  against  your  preaching  ? 

A.  I am  to  obey  God  rather  than  man. 

Q.  5.  Is  Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  or  Independent  church  government 
most  agreeable  to  reason  ? 

A.  The  plain  origin  of  Church  government  seems  to  be  this.  Christ 
sends  forth  a preacher  of  the  Gospel.  Some  who  hear  him,  repent  and 
believe  the  Gospel.  They  then  desire  him  to  watch  over  them,  to  build 
them  up  in  the  faith,  and  to  guide  their  souls  in  the  paths  of  righteous- 
ness. 

Here,  then,  is  an  indejiendent  congregation — subject  to  no  pastor  but 
their  own;  neither  liable  to  be  controlled  in  things  spiritual  by  any 
other  man  or  body  of  men  whatsoever. 

But  soon  after,  some  from  other  parts,  who  are  occasionally  present 
while  he  speaks  in  the' name  of  Him  that  sent  him,  beseech  him  to  come 
over  to  help  them  also.  Knowing  it  to  be  the  will  of  God,  he  consents, 
yet  not  till  he  has  conferred  with  the  wisest  and  holiest  of  his  congrega- 
tion, and,  with  their  advice,  appointed  one  or  more  who  have  gifts  and 
grace  to  w^atch  over  the  flock  till  his  return. 

If  it  pleases  God  to  raise  another  flock  in  the  new  place,  before  he 
leaves  them  he  does  the  same  thing,  appointing  one  whom  God  has  fitted 
for  the  work  to  watch  over  tliese  souls  .also.  In  like  Bnanner,  in  every 
place  where  it  pleases  God  to  gather  a little  flock  by  His  Word,  he  ap- 
points one  in  his  absence  to  take  the  oversight  of  the  rest,  and  to  assist 
them  of  the  abilities  which  God  giveth.  These  are  deacons,  or  servants 
of  the  Church,  and  look  on  the  first  pastor  as  their  common  father. 
And  all  these  congregations  regard  him  in  the  same  light,  and  esteem 
him  still  as  the  shepherd  of  their  souls. 

These  congregations  are  not  &hso\Mt<i\j  independent ; they  depend  on 
one  pastor,  though  not  on  each  other. 

As  these  congregations  increase,  and  as  their  deacons  grow  in  years 
and  grace,  they  need  other  subordinate  deacons  or  helpers,  in  respect  of 
whom  they  may  be  called  presbyters  or  elders,  as  their  father  in  the  Lord 
may  be  called  the  bishop  or  overseer  of  them  all. 

Q.  6.  Is  mutual  consent  absolutely  necessary  between  the  i^astor  and 
his  flock  ? 

A.  No  question.  I cannot  guide  any  soul  unless  he  consent  to  be 


"Wesley  and  the  Chhech  of  England. 


81 


guided  by  me.  Neither  can  any  soul  force  me  to  guide  him  if  I consent 
not. 

Q.  7.  Does  the  ceasing  of  this  consent  on  either  side  dissolve  that  re- 
lation ? 

A.  It  must,  in  the  very  nature  of  things.  If  a man  no  longer  consent 
to  be  guided  by  me,  I am  no  longer  his  guide;  I am  free.  If  one  will 
not  guide  me  any  longer,  I am  free  to  seek  one  who  will. 

This  remarkable  extract  contains  implicitly  the  whole  theory 
of  Methodist  government  and  discipline,  regarded  as  an  or- 
ganization created  and  controlled  by  Wesley  for  the  purpose 
of  converting  sonls  and  of  watching  over  liis  converts.  Wes- 
ley regarded  himself  as  a sort  of  bishop,  his  “assistants”  or 
chief  preachers  in  charge  as  quasi-presbyters,  and  the  junior  or 
probationary  “ helpers  ” as  a sort  of  deacons.  If  he  never  car- 
ried out  this  conception  thoroughly  in  practice,  and  especially 
never  conceded  to  his  chief  preachers  generally  the  distinct 
status  of  presbyters,  it  was  because  he  cherished,  more  or  less, 
though  with  heavy  doubts  and  misgivings,  the  hope  that  the 
bishops  of  his  Church  might  be  brought  to  give  virtual  effect 
to  his  desires,  and  that  Methodism  might  become  an  affiliated 
branch  of  the  Church  of  England. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  and  it  is  very  singular,  that  even  at  the 
time  he  penned  the  remarkable  extract  just  given,  Wesley  still 
retained  some  relics  of  his  ecclesiastical  High  Churchmanship. 
The  date  of  the  minute  is  AxTgust,  1745.  ’'On  December  27,  of 
the  same  year,  he  prints  in  his  journal  a letter  to  his  brother-in- 
law,  Hall — a letter  well-known  and  often  quoted  by  Churchmen 
— in  which  he  upholds  the  doctrines  of  apostolical  succession, 
and  of  the  three-fold  order  of  the  ministry.  On  the  very  next 
page  of  his  journal,  however,  under  date  January  20,  1746 — 
and  no  doubt  the  juxtaposition  was  calculated  and  intended  by 
the  journalist — he  declares  and  publishes  his  definitive  renun- 
ciation of  these  self-same  views,  as  the  result  of  reading  Lord 
(Chancellor)  King’s  “ Account  of  the  Primitive  Church.” 
From  this  conclusion  he  never  afterward  swerved.  ^^It  is  well 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  YoLu^irE. 


known  tliat  in  a letter  to  liis  brotlier  Charles  many  years 
afterward,  (1Y85,)  he  spoke  of  “ the  uninterrupted  succession  ” 
as  “knowing  it  to  be  a fable,  which  no  man  ever  did  or  can 
prove.” 

During  his  subsequent  course  he  repeatedly  speaks  of  himself 
as  “ a Scriptural  Episcopos ; ” and,  as  we  have  seen,  he  acted 
on  this  persuasion. 

In  the  “Disciplinary  Minutes”  for  1Y46,  it  is  said,  that  the 
Wesleys  and  their  helpers  may,  “ perhaps,  be  regarded  as  extra- 
ordinary messengers,  designed  of  God  to  provoke  the  others 
to  jealousy.”  The  following  suggestive  question  and  answer 
are  also  given  in  the  same  Minutes : 

Q.  Why  do  we  not  use  more  form  and  solemnity  in  the  receiving  of  a 
new  laborer  ? 

A.  We  purposely  decline  it;  first,  because  there  is  something  of  stateli- 
ness in  it;  second,  because  we  would  not  make  haste.  We  desire  to 
follow  Providence  as  it  gradually  opens. 

The  Minutes  for  1747  contain  the  following  decisive  series 
of  questions  and  answers 

Q.  6.  Does  a church  in  the  New  Testament  always  mean  a single 
congregation  ? 

A.  We  believe  it  does.  We  do  not  recollect  any  instance  to  the  con- 
trary. 

Q.  7.  What  instance  or  ground  is  there,  then,  in  the  New  Testament, 
for  a National  Church  ? 

il.  We  know  none  at  all.  We  apprehend  it  to  be  a merely  political 
institution. 

Q.  8.  Are  the  three  orders  of  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  plainly 
described  in  the  New  Testament  ? 

A.  We  think  they  are;  and  believe  they  generally  obtained  in  the 
Churches  of  the  apostolic  age. 

Q.  9.  But  are  you  assured  that  God  designed  the  same  plan  should 
obtain  in  all  Churches  throughout  all  ages  ? 

A.  We  are  not  assured  of  this;  because  we  do  not  know  that  it  is  as- 
serted in  Holy  Writ. 


V 

Wesley  and  the  Chuech  of  England.  83 

Q.  10.  If  this  plan  were  essential  to  a Christian  Church,  wliat  would 
become  of  all  the  foreign  Reformed  Churches  ? 

A.  It  would  follow  they  are  no  parts  of  the  Church  of  Christ ; a con- 
sequence full  of  shocking  absurdity. 

Q.  11.  In  what  age  was  the  divine  right  of  Episcopacy  first  asserted 
in  England  ? 

A.  About  the  middle  of  Queen  Elizabeth’s  reign.  Till  then  all  the 
bishops  and  clergy  in  England  continually  allowed  and  joined  in  the 
ministration  of  those  who  were  not  episcopally  ordained. 

Q.  12.  Must  there  not  be  numberless  accidental  varieties  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  various  Churches  ? 

A.  There  must,  in  the  nature  of  things.  For  as  God  variously  dis- 
penses his  gifts  of  nature,  providence,  and  grace,  both  the  offices  them- 
selves and  the  officers  in  each  ought  to  be  varied  from  time  to  time. 

Q.  13.  Why  is  it  that  there  is  no  determinate  plan  of  church-govern- 
ment appointed  in  Scripture  ? 

A.  Without  doubt,  because  the  wisdom  of  God  had  a regard  to  this 
necessary  variety. 

Q.  14.  Was  there  any  thought  of  uniformity  in  the  government  of  all 
Churches  until  the  time  of  Constantine  ? 

A.  It  is  certain  there  was  not,  and  would  not  have  been  then  had  men 
consulted  the  Word  of  God  only. 

So  far  Wesley  had  traveled  since  1738  ; so  thoroughly  differ- 
ent were  his  views  in  1747  from  what  they  had  been  in  1736  ; 
so  profound  was  the  contradiction  between  the  principles  of 
the  Oxford  Methodist,  and  of  the  founder  of  the  Methodist 
Connection  of  Societies.  The  former  was  a priest  and  pastor 
among  “ the  schools  of  the  prophets,”  devoted  to  the  rubrics 
and  order  of  his  Church  ; the  latter  was  an  itinerant  evangelist 
for  his  nation  and  the  world,  loving  his  National  Church,  in- 
deed, but  regarding  it  as  a “political  institution,”  and  always 
prepared  to  sacrifice,  if  it  were  necessary,  his  Churchmanship 
to  what  he  regarded  as  his  higher  and  wider  mission  as  a 
preacher  and  teacher  of  the  Gospel  to  all  men.  Nearly  forty 
years  later,  in  1785,  in  the  letter  to  his  brother  Charles,  lately 
referred  to,  Wesley  re-afifirms  all  that  he  had  said  in  the  “Min- 
utes ” I have  quoted,  and  even  speaks  more  decisively  as  to  the 
6 


84 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


definition  and  character  of  the  Church  of  England.  It  is  true 
that  one  of  his  latest  sermons,  that  on  “The  Ministerial 
Ofiice,”  preached  in  1790,  flames  with  indignation  against  un- 
authorized intniders  into  the  office  of  the  “ priesthood,”  whom 
he  compares  to  Korah  and  his  fellows.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  he  regarded  ordination  by  himself,  conferred  on  one 
of  his  preachers,  as  equally  valid  with  any  that  might  have 
been  bestowed  by  the  hands  of  any  bishop  of  whatever  Church. 
What  he  objected  to  in  some  of  his  preachers  was,  that  they 
had  presumed  to  administer  the  sacraments  when  he  had  not 
appointed  them.  “ Did  we  ever  appoint  you,”  he  asks  in  this 
sermon,  “to  administer  sacraments,  to  exercise  the  priestly 
office  ? Where  did  I ajrpoint  you  to  do  this  ? Nowhere 
at  all ! ” 

''Nevertheless,  in  1775,  wi’ititig  to  a Tory  statesman,  Wesley 
described  himself  as  “ a High  Churchman,  the  son  of  a High 
Churchman ; ” and  this  fact  is  sometimes  brought  forward  as 
evidence  that  he  retained  through  life,  substantially  unchanged, 
the  principles  of  his  Oxford  Ritualistic  Churchmanship.'^  The 
more,  however,  the  question  is  investigated,  the  more  untena- 
ble will  any  such  view  appear.  Wesley  was  never  a political 
Low  Churchman.  He  had  no  Dissenting  predilections,  or  Pu- 
ritan punctilios,  or  latitudinarian  laxity.  He  was  a Tory  in 
Church  and  State.  But  during  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  of 
his  fife  he  altogether  abandoned  the  positive  principles  of 
High  Churchmanship,  both  in  theology  and  in  relation  to 
ecclesiastical  government.  The  letter  to  which  I have  referred 
was,  however,  one  in  which  he  put  prominently  forward  his 
Toryism,  as  regarded  from  a political  point  of  view,  in  order 
that  he  might  the  better  commend  the  argument  of  his  letter 
to  the  attention  of  a Tory  statesman.  He  was  writing  to  Lord 
North  on  behalf  of  the  revolted  American  colonists,  urging 
counsels  to  which  it  would  have  been  well  if  the  Government 
had  listened.  He  was  writing  on  a pofitical  question  to  a poli- 
tician. Accordingly  he  says,  “Here  aU  my  prejudices  are 


Wesley  and  the  Chuech  oe  England. 


85 


against  the  Americans ; for  I am  a High  Churchman,  the  son 
of  a High  Churchman,  bred  up  from  my  childhood  in  the 
highest  notions  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance.” 
These  words  indicate  the  scope  and  bearing  of  the  High 
Churchmanship  of  which  he  speaks.  And  yet  it  is  curious 
how  he  goes  on  to  illustrate,  even  in  the  political  sphere,  the 
independence  and  liberal  tone  of  his  Toryism.  He  proceeds 
thus : “ And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  my  long-rooted  prejudices,  I 
cannot  avoid  thinking,  if  I think  at  all,  these,  an  oppressed 
people,  asked  for  nothing  more  than  their  legal  rights,  and  that 
in  the  most  modest  and  inoffensive  manner  that  the  nature  of 
the  thing  would  allow.” 

His  actual  position  in  regard  to  High  Church  and  Low 
Church — to  Anglicanism  and  Nonconformity — is  very  clearly 
indicated  in  the  following  passages.  In  his  journal,  under  date 
of  Friday,  March  13,  1747,  he  writes:  “In  some  of  the  follow- 
ing days  I snatched  a few  hours  to  read  ‘ The  History  of  the 
Puritans.’  I stand  in  amaze-;  first,  at  the  execrable  spirit  of 
persecution  which  drove  those  venerable  men  out  of  the  Church, 
and  with  which  Queen  Ehzabeth’s  clergy  were  as  deeply  tinct- 
ured as  ever  Queen  Mary’s  were ; secondly,  at  the  weakness  of 
those  holy  confessors,  many  of  whom  spent  so  much  of  their 
time  and  strength  in  disputing  about  surplices  and  hoods,  or 
kneeling  at  the  Lord’s  Supper.”  In  April,  1754,  again  he 
writes : “ I read  Dr.  Calamy’s  ‘ Abridgment  of  Mr.  Baxter’s 
Life.’  In  spite  of  all  the  prejudices  of  education,  I could  not 
but  see  that  the  poor  Nonconformists  had  been  used  without 
justice  or  mercy,  and  that  many  of  the  Protestant  bishops  of 
King  Charles  (the  Second)  had  neither  more  religion  nor 
humanity  than  the  Popish  bishops  of  Queen  Mary.”  But 
stiU  more  decisive,  perhaps,  as  to  the  limited  and  modified 
sense  in  which  alone  Wesley  could  be  regarded  as  a High 
Churchman,  even  when  he  described  himself  as  such,  is  the 
following  passage,  written  two  years  later  than  his  letter  to 
Lord  North,  namely,  in  1777.  In  it  he  is,  notwithstanding 


86 


' The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


his  letter  of  1775,  appealing  to  Dissenters  to  show  loyalty  to 
the  King  in  the  struggle  then  going  on  with  the  revolted  col- 
onies ; and  he  exclaims : “ Do  you  imagine  there  are  no  High 
Churchmen  left  ? Did  they  all  die  with  Dr.  Sacheverell  ? 
Alas!  how  little  you  know  of  mankind!  Were  the  present 
restraint  taken  off,  you  would  see  them  swarming  on  every 
side,  and  gnashing  upon  you  with  their  teeth.  ...  If  other 
Bonners  and  Gardiners  did  not  arise,  other  Lauds  and  Shel- 
dons would,  who  would  either  rule  over  you  with  a rod  of  iron, 
or  drive  you  out  of  the  land.” 

We  have  seen  how  far  Wesley  had  traveled  since  1738.  The 
investigation  which  we  have  thus  far  conducted  is  fundamental 
to  any  correet  view  of  the  relations  of  Methodism  to  the  Church 
of  England.  There  are  some  who  still  hope  that  a violent  and 
entire  breach  between  Methodism  and  the  Church  of  England 
may  yet  be  averted.  But  of  this  there  can  be  no  hope,  if  the 
position  and  the  principles  of  Wesley  himself  are  forever  to  be 
misunderstood.  Those  who  at  the  same  time  summon  Meth- 
odists, on  the  authority  of  their  founder,  to  return  to  the  fold  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  deny  to  their  pastors  and  preachers 
the  status  of  ministers,  both  mistake  the  facts  of  the  case,  so  far 
as  Wesley  himself  was  concerned,  and  do  all  that  lies  in  their 
power,  so  far  as  modern  Methodism  is  concerned,  to  widen  sep- 
aration into  alienation,  to  harden  and  provoke  independence  into 
animosity  and  antagonism.  Wesley  had  plans — dreams,  many 
may  think  them — by  which  he  conceived  that  the  Methodist 
organization,  as  such,  might  in  great  part  have  been  attached  to 
the  Church  of  England,  might  have  been  the  means  of  largely 
reviving  that  Church,  of  absorbing  not  a little  of  explicit  and 
professed  Dissent,  of  making  the  Church  living  and  national 
throughout  the  land.  He  feared  that,  if  this  did  not  come  to  pass, 
if  nothing  were  done  by  the  rulers  of  the  Church  toward  meeting 
his  views,  his  people  would,  after  his  death,  become  a separate 
people.  In  his  independent  organization  of  American  Meth- 
odism, he  embodied  in  general  his  own  ideal  of  an  independent 


Wesley  ajstd  the  Cheech  of  England.  87 


Methodist  Clmrcli.  He  knew  full  well  the  mind  of  many  of  his 
leading  preachers,  headed  by  Dr.  Coke,  as  to  the  high  benefit 
and  desirableness,  if  not  the  necessity,  of  Methodism  in  En- 
gland becoming  an  independent  organization.  But  he  desired 
to  postpone  such  a consummation  as  long  as  possible,  and  to 
prevent  it  if  possible.  He  was  bent  upon  securing  for  his  own 
Church  the  utmost  space  and  opportunity  for  effecting  an  or- 
ganic union  with  his  Societies,  and  he  endeavored  so  to  use 
his  influence  to  the  last  as  to  keep  as  many  of  his  people  at- 
tached to  the  Church  as  possible,  and  at  least  to  preclude  a sep- 
aration on  dissenting  principles.  It  is  wonderful  how  long  and 
how  far  his  influence  has  extended.  Even  such  a policy  as  that 
represented  in  the  pastorals  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  ex- 
emplified in  the  outrage  recently  inflicted  by  the  Yicar  of 
Owston  Ferry,  has  not  fully  availed  to  drive  Methodism  to 
make  a breach  with  the  Church  of  England.  It  may  yet  be 
possible,  by  a wise  and  generous  policy,  to  retain  many  friends 
in  the  Methodist  Connection  who  hold  that  it  is  well,  apart 
from  all  voluntary  communions,  to  have  a liberal  Protestant 
Established  Church ; or  who,  at  all  events,  are  opposed  to  a 
disestablishment  agitation.  But  it  is  no  more  possible,  by 
quoting  the  authority  of  Wesley,  on  the  one  hand  to  win  back, 
than  it  is  by  petty  persecutions  on  the  other  to  drive  back, 
any  appreciable  number  of  Methodists  into  the  ranks  of  the 
Church.  All  that  such  conduct  can  do  is  to  irritate  and  alien- 
ate at  large. 

In  fact,  the  principles  which  Wesley  embraced  in  1738  de- 
termined all  his  future  course,  and  every  step  he  afterward  took 
looked  toward  separation  and  independence,  unless,  in  good 
time,  Methodism  could  somehow  be  taken  up  into  organic  union 
with. the  Chm’ch  of  England,  and  yet  left  as  a system  in  its 
substantial  integrity.  It  is  evident  from  the  terms  of  the  Deed 
Poll,  by  which,  in  1781,  he  legally  constituted  the  Conference, 
that  Wesley  contemplated  the  possibility  of  the  chief  ministers 
in  some  of  his  ch'cuits  being  stationary  ordained  clergymen  of 


88  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume, 

the  Chui’ch  of  England,  with  and  nnder  whom  itinerant  Meth- 
odist Evangelists  might  do  the  work  of  the  “ circnits.”  The 
hmitation  of  a preacher’s  labors  in  connection  with  the  same 
chapel  to  a period  of  three  years  as  provided  by  that  Deed 
does  not  apply,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Deed  Poll 
itself,  in  the  case  of  an  ordained  clergyman.  Wesley’s  dream, 
probably,  was,  that  a number — an  increasing  number  as  years 
passed  on — of  Methodist  preachers  might  be  appointed  to 
benefices  situated  respectively  at  the  head  place,  or  in  the 
center,  of  the  “circuits”  of  Methodism,  and  that,  living  there, 
they  might  act  as  the  chief  ministers  of  such  circuits,  having 
unordained  itinerants  as  their  subordinate  colleagues  and  co- 
adjutors. The  celebrated  Mr.  Grimshaw,  Vicar  of  Haworth, 
and  the  still  more  celebrated  Fletcher,  of  Madeley,  did  thus  act 
as  the  chief  ministers  of  Methodist  circuits,  and  had  their  names 
as  such  upon  the  “ Minutes  of  Conference.”  If  this  process 
had  gone  on,  these  ordained  Methodist  clergy  being  members 
of  the  Conference,  there  might  conceivably  have  been  a Meth- 
odist order  and  organization  within  the  Church  of  England,  of 
which  the  members,  distinguished  by  zeal  and  activity,  might 
have  been  extending  their  lines  and  labors  in  all  directions. 
I can  see  no  necessary  reason  why  something  like  this  might 
not  have  taken  place : the  orders  of  the  Church  of  Pome  have 
done  a work  somewhat  analogous ; have  had  their  own  assem- 
blies, their  special  organization  and  discipline  the  generals. 
Wesley  had  early  studied  closely,  and  has  left  on  record  his 
admiration  of,  the  genius  and  discipline  of  Loyola.  And  it 
was,  perhaps,  his  highest  desire  to  do,  in  a frank  and  evangel- 
ical sense  and  spirit,  for  the  Church  of  England  a work  some- 
what resembling  what  Loyola  had  organized  Avith  such  mar- 
velous success  for  the  Church  of  Pome.  Whatever,  however, 
might  have  been  his  ideas  in  regard  to  this  matter,  they  were 
not  to  be  fulfilled ; and,  apart  from  such  fulfillment,  the  steps 
he  successively  took  were  directly  bent,  as  I have  said,  toward 
one  goal — the  goal  of  separation,  of  organized  independency. 


Wesley  axd  the  Chuech  of  Ehglaatd. 


89 


WTien,  in  1739,  "Wesley  organized  a system  of  religions  Soci- 
eties, altogether  independent  of  the  parochial  clergy  and  of 
Episcopal  control,  bnt  dependent  absolutely  on  himself,  he  took 
a step  toward  raising  up  a separate  communion,  especially  as 
the  “rules”  of  his  Societies  contained  no  requii-ement  of  alle- 
giance to  the  Established  Chiu’ch.  When,  in  1740,  he  built 
meeting-houses,  which  were  settled  on  trustees  for  his  own  use, 
and  began,  with  his  brother,  to  administer  the  sacraments  in 
these  houses,  a further  step  was  taken  in  the  same  direction. 
Calbng  out,  in  171:1,  lay  preachers  wholly  devoted  to  the  work 
of  preaching  and  visitation,  was  still  a step  in  advance  toward 
the  same  issue.  The  yearly  Conferences,  begun  in  IIM,  tended 
obviously  in  the  same  direction.  The  legal  constitution  of  the 
Conference  in  1784,  and  the  provision  for  vesting  in  it,  for 
the  use  of  the  “ People  called  Methodists,”  all  the  preaching- 
places  and  trust  property  of  the  Connection,  was  a most  impor- 
tant measure,  giving  to  the  Union  of  the  Societies  a legally 
corporate  character  and  large  property-rights.  The  ordination 
of  ministers,  even  for  America,  as  Charles  Wesley  forcibly 
pointed  out  at  the  time,  could  hardly  fail  to  conduct  toward 
the  result  which  W esley  had  so  long  striven  to  avert,  namely, 
the  general  ordination  of  his  preachers  in  Great  Britain.  If  it 
was  necessary  to  ordain  for  America,  they  would  plead  that  it 
was  highly  expedient  to  ordain  for  England.  The  principle 
was  conceded  that  the  only  question  was  one  of  time  and  fit- 
ness as  to  its  more  extended  application.  The  ordinations 
for  Scotland  were  refused  by  Wesley  so  long  as  he  could  refuse 
them  with  either  safety  or  consistency.  Without  them,  his 
people  would,  in  very  many  cases,  have  been  left  quite  with- 
out the  sacraments,  as  the  Calvinistic  controversy  had  become 
imbittered,  and  Wesley  and  Ifis  followers  were  accoimted  here- 
tics by  the  Orthodox  in  Scotland.  Nevertheless,  ordaining  for 
Scotland  could  not  but  hasten  the  day  when  preachers  must 
be  ordained  for  England.  It  was  hard  to  require  that  Mr. 
Taylor  should  administer  in  Scotland,  and  should  hold  himself 


90 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


foi’bidden  and  unable  to  administer  in  England.  And  when, 
at  length,  Wesley  was  compelled  to  ordain  a few  ministers  for 
England,  it  could  not  but  be  seen  that  wbat  had  been  done  in 
the  case  of  the  few  could  not  always  be  refused  as  respected 
their  brethren  at  large.  As  little  could  it  be  expected  that 
while,  for  various  reasons,  in  addition  to  London  and  Bristol, 
which  had  enjoyed  this  “ ” from  the  beginning,  more 

and  more  places  were  allowed  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of  preach- 
ing in  church  hours,  the  concession  of  the  same  privilege  to 
other  places  which  might  desire  it  could  be  permanently  denied. 

In  weighing  this  summary  of  facts,  Churchmen  are  also 
bound  in  justice  to  remember  that  it  was  the  continued  refusal 
of  the  clergy  in  Bristol  to  administer  the  Lord’s  Suj^per  to  the 
Methodists,  and  even  to  the  Wesleys  themselves,  which  drove 
them  to  administer  it  to  their  Societies  in  their  own  meetina:- 
house.  Similar  conduct  constrained  W esley  to  allow  separate 
services  in  more  and  more  places,  and,  in  the  end,  to  ordain 
some  of  his  own  preachers  to  assist  him  in  administeriug  the 
sacraments  to  his  Societies  even  in  England. 

Much  is  made  by  many  of  the  clergy  of  the  injunctions 
which  Wesley  so  often  gave  to  his  people  down  to  his  last  days, 
not  to  separate  from  the  Church  of  England.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  he  had  a passionate  desire  to  keep  them  as  long 
as  possible,  and  as  many  of  them  as  possible,  within  that  fold ; 
but  no  injunctions  or  entreaties  on  his  part  could  change  the 
logic  of  facts,  or  alter  the  necessary  consequences  of  the  course 
he  himself  pursued  so  steadily  for  fifty  years.  Besides,  his  say- 
ings on  the  other  side  were  sharp  and  strong,  and  cannot  but  have 
the  more  weight  as  having  been  wrung  from  him  in  spite  of  him- 
self— in  spite  of  the  strongest  bias  in  the  other  direction. 
Writing  to  his  brother  Charles,  Wesley  says,  in  1Y55 : “Joseph 
Cownley  says,  ‘For  such  and  such  reasons  I dare  not  hear  a 
drunkard  preach  or  read  prayers.’  I answer,  I dare,  but  I can- 
not answer  his  reasons.”  And  again,  writing  stiU  to  his  brother 
thirty  years  later,  in  1Y86,  he  says : “ The  last  time  I was  at 


TV'esley  and  the  Church  of  Englahd.  91 

Scarborougli  I earnestly  exhorted  onr  people  to  go  to  Church, 
and  I went  myself.  But  the  wretched  minister  preached  such 
a sermon  tiiat  I could  not  in  conscience  advise  them  to  hear 
him  any  more.” 

It  is  truly  said,  and  much  stress  is  laid  upon  it,  that  Wesley 
urged  his  preachers  and  people  not  to  hold  their  services  in 
church  hours.  This  was  his  rule ; hut  it  is  equally  true  that  in 
London  and  Bristol,  his  chief  centers,  the  services  had  almost 
from  the  beginning  been  held  in  church  hours ; that  he  sanc- 
tioned many  other  exceptions  to  the  rule  ; and  that  the  number 
of  exceptions  increased  as  the  years  Avent  on,  until  at  length,  in 
1788,  general  liberty  was  gi^^en  to  hold  such  services  wherever 
the  people  did  not  object,  except  only  on  sacrament  Sunday. 
This  exception  was  absolutely  necessary,  because,  as  a rule, 
Methodists  could  only  obtain  the  sacrament  at  church.  As  yet 
but  few  of  the  preachers  were  ordained.  Wesley  and  Coke, 
Wesley’s  lieutenant  after  his  brother  Charles  ceased  to  itinerate, 
could  rarely  visit  any  given  place,  and  they  never  Ausited  some 
places.  Local  preachers  supplied  the  pulpit,  leaders  met  the 
classes  ; but  neither  could  administer  the  sacraments. 

W esley’s  views  as  to  the  Established  Church  were  very  lax. 
Begarded  as  a national  Church  we  have  seen  that  he  defined 
it  to  be  merely  a pohtical  institution.  He  seems  to  have  con- 
sidered that  every  one  who  believed  the  main  doctrines  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  lived  a Christian  life,  according  to  his 
best  lights  and  opportunities,  so  long  as  he  did  not  consciously 
or  dehberately  dissent  from  that  Church,  was  to  be  regarded  as 
a member  of  it.  W e must  bear  this  in  mind  if  we  would  un- 
derstand how  it  was  that  Wesley,  at  the  same  time,  earnestly 
desired  and  entreated  his  people  generally  to  remain  as  closely  as 
possible  attached  to  the  Church  of  England,  and  yet,  whenever 
any  usage,  or  customary  right,  or  even  law  of  that  Church, 
seemed  to  come  into  conflict  with  what  he  regarded  as  the 
spread  of  evangelical  truth  and  life,  he  was  prepared  to  make 
an  entire  and  unhesitating  sacrifice  of  it.  He  regarded  the 


92 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Cliurcli  of  England,  indeed,  and  all  belonging  to  it,  as  only  a 
naeans  to  an  end.  Hence,  in  1755,  when  bis  brother  Charles  was 
trembling  and  indignant  in  the  prospect,  as  he  foreboded,  of  a 
speedy  and  organic  separation  of  many  of  the  preachers  and  of 
the  Societies  from  the  Church,  Wesley  wrote  to  him  thus : — 

“Wherever  I have  been  in  England  the  Societies  are  far 
more  firmly  and  rationally  attached  to  the  Church  than  ever 
they  were  before.  I have  no  fear  abont  this  matter.  I only 
fear  the  preachers’  or  the  peoples’  leaving,  not  the  Church,  but 
the  love  of  God,  and  inward  or  outward  holiness.  To  this  I 
press  them  forward  continually.  I dare  not,  in  conscience, 
spend  my  time  and  strength  on  externals.  If,  as  my  Lady 
Huntingdon  says,  all  outward  Establishments  are  Babel,  so  is 
this  Establishment.  Let  it  stand  for  me.  I neither  set  it  up 
nor  pull  it  down.  But  let  you  and  I build  up  the  city  of 
God.” 

Again,  still  more  notable  are  his  words  which  follow : — - 

“ My  conclusion,  which  I cannot  yet  give  up — that  it  is  lawful 
to  continue  in  the  Church — stands,  I know  not  how,  without 
any  premises  to  bear  its  weight.  I know  the  original  doctrines 
of  the  Church  are  sound : I know  her  worship  is,  in  the  main, 
pure  and  Scriptural.  But  if  the  ‘ essence  of  the  Church  of 
England,  considered  as  such,  consists  in  her  orders  and  laws 
(many  of  which  I can  myself  say  nothing  for)  and  not  in  her 
worship  and  doctrines,’  those  who  separate  from  her  have  a far 
stronger  plea  than  I was  ever  sensible  of.” 

Again,  in  1786,  writing  to  his  brother,  Wesley  said  : “ As  you 
observe,  one  may  leave  a .Church  (which  I would  advise  in  some 
cases)  without  leaving  the  Church.  Here  we  may  remain  in 
spite  of  all  wicked  or  Calvinistic  preachers.”  In  the  same  year, 
a month  earlier,  he  had  written,  also  to  his  brother,  “ Indeed,  I 
love  the  Church  as  sincerely  as  ever  I did ; and  I tell  our  Socie- 
ties every- where,  ‘ The  Methodists  will  not  leave  the  Church, 
at  least  while  I live.’  ” 

The  limitation  intimated  in  the  last  clause  quoted  is  not 


Wesley  ayd  the  Church  of  Ehglahd. 


93 


■without  significance.  Bnt  there  were  occasions  on  which  "Wes- 
lev  contemplated  the  possibility  of  actual  Dissent,  even  on  his 
own  part,  althongh  assuredly  no  alternative,  no  extremity,  could 
well  have  been  more  repugnant  to  all  his  tastes  and  feelings. 
The  Bishop  of  London  having  excommunicated  a clergyman 
for  preaching  without  a license,  W esley  wrote  respecting  this, 

It  is  probable  the  point  will  be  now  determined  concerning 
the  Church,  for  if  we  must  either  dissent  or  be  silent,  actxbin 
esty  “ Church  or  no  Church,”  again  he  wrote,  “ we  must  at- 
tend to  the  work  of  saving  sorrls.” 

It  was  at  last  brought  to  the  sharp  issue  which  W esley  dreaded, 
so  far  as  many,  and  in  the  end  all,  of  his  congregations  were 
concerned.  They  were  obliged  either  to  dissent  or  he  silent. 
One  of  Wesley’s  latest  letters,  addressed  to  a bishop,  relates  to 
tills  subject.  The  Methodists  found  themselves  forced  either 
to  register  their  meeting-houses  as  “Protestant  Dissenting” 
places  of  worship,  or  else  forego  all  the  protection  and  benefits 
of  the  Toleration  Act.  I give  the  Methodist  patriarch’s  letter 
entire.  He  was  eighty-six  years  old  when  he  wrote  it : 

My  Loi(d  ; It  may  seem  strange  that  one  who  is  not  acquainted  with 
your  lordship  should  trouble  you  with  a letter.  But  I am  constrained 
to  do  it ; I believe  it  is  my  duty  both  to  God  and  your  lordship.  And  I 
must  speak  plain,  having  nothing  to  hope  or  fear  in  this  world,  which  I 
am  on  the  point  of  leaving. 

The  Methodists,  in  general,  my  lord,  are  members  of  the  Church 
of  England.  They  hold  all  her  doctrines,  attend  her  service,  and  par- 
take of  her  sacraments.  They  do  not  willingly  do  harm  to  any  one,  but 
do  what  good  they  c.an  to  all.  To  encourage  each  other  herein,  they  fre- 
quently spend  an  hour  together  in  prayer  and  exhortation.  Permit  me, 
then,  to  ask,  Cui  bono  ? For  what  reasonable  end  would  your  lordship 
drive  these  people  out  of  the  Church?  Are  they  not  as  quiet,  as  inoffen- 
sive, nay,  as  pious  as  any  of  their  neighbors,  except  perhaps  here  and 
there  a hare-brained  man  who  knows  not  what  he  is  about  ? 

Do  you  ask,  Who  drives  them  out  of  the  Church  ? Tour  lordship 
does,  and  that  in  the  most  cruel  manner,  yea,  and  the  most  disingenuous 
manner.  They  desire  a license  to  worship  God  after  their  own  con- 
science. Tour  lordship  refuses  it,  and  then  punishes  them  for  not  hav- 


94 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


ing  a license!  So  your  lordship  leaves  them  only  this  alternative, 
“ Leave  the  Church  or  starve.”  And  it  is  a Christian,  yea,  a Protestant 
bishop  that  so  persecutes  his  own  flock.  I say  persecutes,  for  it  is  a 
persecution  to  all  intents  and  purposes.  You  do  not  burn  them,  in- 
deed, but  you  starve  them,  and  how  small  is  tlie  difTereuce ! And  your 
lordship  does  this  under  color  of  a vile,  execrable  law,  not  a whit  better 
than  that  De  Haretico  Gornburendo.  So  persecution,  which  is  banished 
out  of  France,  is  again  countenanced  in  England. 

0 my  lord,  for  God’s  sake,  for  Christ’s  sake,  for  pity’s  sake,  suffer 
the  poor  people  to  enjoy  their  religious  as  well  as  civil  liberty.  I 
am  on  the  brink  of  eternity.  Perhaps  so  is  your  lordship,  too.  How 
soon  may  you  also  be  called  to  give  an  account  of  your  stewardship  to 
the  great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls ! May  he  enable  both  you  and 
me  to  do  it  with  joy!  So  prays,  my  lord. 

Your  lordship’s  dutiful  son  and  servant, 

John  Wesley. 

Thus  were  the  Methodists  compelled,  against  their  own  will, 
as  well  as  sorely  against  the  will  of  their  founder,  to  become 
in  legal  construction  Protestant  Dissenters. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  remarkable  how  slowly  the  process  of  act- 
ual separation  proceeded.  The  date  of  the  letter  just  quoted 
was  June  26,  1790,  a few  weeks  before  the  last  Conference  at 
which  Wesley  presided.  What  effect  the  new  condition  of 
things  might  have  produced  on  his  views  or  conduct  if  he  had 
been  a younger  man,  and  had  lived  a few  years  longer,  it  is  im- 
possible to  conjecture.  He  was  still  hoping  for  relief  from 
this  stringent  and  impolitic  application  of  the  Conventicle  Act 
up  to  the  date  of  his  death.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  dissent- 
ing  party  within  the  Conference  and  among  the  Societies  (by 
no  means  a small  or  feeble  party)  must  have  been  stimulated 
and  strengthened  by  finding  themselves  forced  into  the  legal 
position  of  Dissenters.  Nevertheless,  the  spirit  of  Wesley 
prevailed  in  the  councils  of  his  followers  after  his  death  to  a 
degree  which,  all  things  considered,  is  really  surprising. 

In  1787  Wesley  had  said,  “When  the  Methodists  leave  the 
Church  of  England,  Cod  will  leave  them;”  in  1788,  that  the 
“ glory  ” of  the  Methodists  had  been  “ not  to  be  a separate  body,” 


Wesley  and  the  Church  oe  England. 


95 


and  tliat  “the  more  he  reflected  the  more  he  was  convinced 
that  the  Methodists  ought  not  to  leave  the  Church ; ” in  1789, 
that  they  would  “ not  he  a distinct  body  ; ” in  1790,  that  “ none 
who  regarded  his  judgment  or  advice  would  separate  from  the 
Church  of  England.”  And  as  a matter  of  fact,  notwithstand- 
ing the  enforcement  of  the  Conventicle  Act,  the  Conference 
after  Mr.  Wesley’s  death  did  not  “separate  fi’om  the  Church  of 
England.” 

What  Wesley  dreaded  first  and  most  in  separation  was  its 
want  of  charity,  its  schismatic  temper  and  tendency.  Many 
passages  might  he  quoted  to  prove  this.  His  whole  soul  re- 
volted from  the  thought  of  his  people  deliberately,  for  reasons 
assigned  and  upon  a manifesto  of  dissent  and  separation,  sever- 
ing themselves  from  the  .Church.  If  there  were  to  be  a sepa- 
ration, his  determination  through  hfe  was,  that  the  separation 
should  be  imposed  and  forced  upon,  not  sought  or  determined 
by,  the  Methodists.  He  could  not  but  be  aware,  moreover,  that 
the  conscious  and  deliberate  organization  of  his  people  into  a 
separate  Church  would  be  in  many  ways  a hazardous  and  pre- 
carious experiment.  He  w'as  persuaded  that  the  express  adop- 
tion of  the  status  and  principles  of  a Dissenting  sect  would 
bring  disorganization  and  ruin  to  Methodism. 

The  Conference,  as  I have  said,  after  Wesley’s  death,  acted 
in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  their  founder.  Even  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  Conventicle  Act,  the  hardships  of  which  were  not 
removed  till  1812,  when  Parliament,  under  the  ministry  of 
Lord  Liverpool,  passed  an  act  repeahng  the  obnoxious  and 
oppressive  restrictions  on  the  hberty  of  preaching,  did  not 
drive  them  into  any  extreme  course.  They  suffered,  indeed, 
between  1791  and  1795,  the  peace  of  the  Connection  to  be 
most  seriously  embroiled,  and  allowed  many  of  their  churches 
to  be  brought  to  the  verge  of  dissolution,  before  they  consented 
to  permit  even  the  gradual  extension  of  separate  services  in 
church  hours,  and  of  sacramental  administration  by  their 
own  preachers  for  the  members  of  their  Societies.  In  giving 


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The  "Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


tliis  guarded  perruigsLon  they  still  did  but  follow  the  prece- 
dent of  "Wesley,  and  act  in  conformity  with  his  spirit  and 
principles.  They  never,  at  any  time,  decreed  a separation  of 
Methodism  from  the  Church  of  England ; that  sej^aration  was 
effected  by  the  particular  Societies  distributively  and  the  indi- 
vidual members  personally,  not  at  all  by  the  action,  or  on  the 
suggestion,  but  only  by  the  permission,  of  the  Conference. 
The  Wesleyan  Conference  did  not,  in  fact,  recognize  and 
provide  for  the  actual  condition  of  ecclesiastical  independency 
into  which  the  Connection  had  been  brought,  until  that  condi- 
tion had  long  existed ; and  Methodist  preachers  abstained  from 
using  the  style  and  title  appropriate  to  ordained  ministers, 
and  from  assuming  in  any  way  collectively,  the  language  of 
complete  pastoral  responsibility,  unt^  by  the  universal  action 
of  the  Connection  their  people  had,  of  their  own  will,  practi- 
cally separated  themselves  from  the  Church  of  England,  and 
forced  their  preachers  into  the  full  position  and  relations  of 
pastors — pastors  in  common  of  a common  flock,  who  recognized 
them  alone  as  their  ministers,  and  among  whom  they  itinerated 
by  mutiral  arrangement. 

Looking  at  the  whole  evidence,  it  appears  to  be  undeniable 
that,  as  it  has  been  said,  so  far  as  respects  the  separate  develop- 
ment of  Methodism,  “Wesley  not  only  pointed  but  paved  the 
way  to  all  that  has  since  been  done,  and  that  the  utmost  diver- 
gence of  Methodism  from  the  Church  of  England  at  this  day 
is  but  the  prolongation  of  a line  the  beginning  of  which  was 
traced  by  Wesley’s  own  hand.”  It  is  idle  to  attempt  to  purge 
Wesley  of  the  sin  of  schism  in  order  to  cast  the  guilt  upon  his 
followers. 

It  is  manifestly  now  too  late  to  think  of  the  re-absorption  of 
Methodism  into  the  Church  of  England,  for  English  Method- 
ism is  not  only  itself  a large  and  consolidated  communion,  but 
it  has  been  the  fruitful  mother  of  many  other  communions  ; of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States,  by  far 
the  largest  Protestant  Church  in  America,  perhaps  in  the 


Wesley  akd  tile  Chuech  of  England.  97 


world ; of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South ; of  the 
Colonial  Methodist  Churches  ; and  of  Mission  Churches  almost 
without  end — not  to  mention  other  Methodist  Churches  in  both 
hemispheres.  With  such  a family  of  Churches  derived  from 
itself,  that  parent  stock  of  Methodism  which  claims  direct  de- 
scent from  John  Wesley,  is  never  likely  to  consent  to  merge  its 
own  identity  or  annul  its  historical  position. 


WESLEY’S  INELIJENCE 


ON  THE 

SOCIAL,  IJITELLECTUAL,  AND  EELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  ENGLISH 

MASSES.* 


IX  dealing  with  tlie  character  and  career  of  John  "Wesley, 
as  onr  allotted  space  forbids  all  introductory,  rhetorical, 
or  eloquent  vaporing,  we  shall  only  premise  by  saying  that 
Wesley  differed  essentially  from  all  previous  religious  reform- 
ers, including  Wiclif,  Luther,  Calvin,  Zwinglius,  Cranmer, 
Knox,  and  all  the  great  and  good  men  of  the  Puritan  age. 
When  Wesley  looked  upon  the  ruins  of  an  old  abbey  in  Scot- 
land, he  said,  “ God  deliver  us  from  reforming  mobs.  . . . He  does 
not,  cannot  need  the  work  of  the  devil  to  forward  reform.” 
Wesley’s  reforms  were  quite  of  another  stamp.  He  saw  that 
people’s  hearts  and  lives  needed  reforming,  and  he  had  the 
sagacity  to  go  back  to  the  ages  of  the  apostles  and  those  imme- 
diately succeeding,  for  his  examples  of  Christian  life  and  work. 
Ho  one  knew  better  than  he  that  the  Reformers  of  the  six- 
teenth century  merely  struck  at  the  outworks  of  a gigantic 
system  of  corruption  and  fraud,  while  they  left  the  heart  of 
the  great  evil  still  living  and  beating.  They  lit  a great  fire 
which  consumed  huge  masses  of  refuse,  but  it  sometimes 
burned  too  fast  and  even  too  much,  and,  in  most  instances, 
soon  burned  itself  out.  Wesley  aimed  to  light  a fire  in  men’s 
hearts  rather  than  in  their  passions,  and  hence  we  now  see  the 


* In  this  paper  every  fact  or  incident  may  be  verified  by  reference  to  the  follow- 
ing works:  Watson’s  “Life  of  Wesley;’’  Everett’s  “Life  of  Adam  Clarke;” 
Southey’s  “Life  of  Wesley;”  Tyerman’s  “Life  and  Times  of  Eeverend  S.  Wes- 
lev;”  “ The  Oxford  Methodists ; ” “John  Wesley  and  the  Evangelical  Eeaction  of 
the  Eighteenth  Century,”  by  Julia  Wedgwood;  “John  Wesley’s  Place  in  Church 
History,”  by  E.  Denny  Urlin;  and  above  all,  Tyerman’s  “Life  and  Times  of  John 
Wesley.” 


Wesley’s  Iistelueis’-ce. 


99 


results  in  the  religious  decadence  of  the  work  of  the  old 
Reformers,  and  in  the  permanence  and  ever-increasing  growth 
of  the  spiritual  light  and  heat  which  he  kindled.  The  old 
Reformers  set  the  mind  of  Europe  free  from  a religions  and 
pohtical  bondage  nneqnaled  in  the  history  of  mankind,  and  so 
far  laid  the  world  under  undying  obligations;  but  Wesley 
came  to  do  another  and  still  higher  work : to  awaken  tiie  inner 
and  spiritual  life,  and  call  men’s  attention  to  the  great  fact, 
every-where  lost  or  overlooked,  that  there  is  something  worth 
the  attention  of  rational  beings  beyond  the  physical  and  ma- 
terial, or  even  the  intellectual ; that  in  fact  there  are  spiritual 
laws  which  govern  the  universe,  and  which  take  cognizance  of 
men  and  human  atfairs.  Wesley  started  with  a fixed  and  im- 
movable resolve  to  reawaken  mankind  to  the  di’ead  reality  and 
pressing  importance  of  these  great  truths,  and  to  inspire  in 
them  a higher  spiritual  life. 

John  Wesley  was  an  eminent  example  of  English  manliness 
and  disinterested  love  of  truth.  When  he  set  out  on  his  un- 
promising mission  there  was  no  place  in  the  Chiirch  not  fairly 
open  to  him,  and,  with  his  fine  natural  abilities  and  attainments 
as  a scholar,  there  would  have  been  no  imdue  ambition  had  he 
aimed  at  its  highest  dignities.  The  Epworth  parsonage  for 
him  had  no  charms,  nor  was  the  possible  gain  of  the  primacy 
to  be  put  in  competition  with  the  glory  of  awakening  his 
fellow-countrymen  to  a sense  of  the  importance  and  value  of  a 
new  spiritual  life.  Ambitions  prospects  of  promotion.  Church 
friends  and  associations,  emoluments  and  allurements  promised 
by  a life  of  comparatively  quiet  repose,  were  freely  sacrificed 
to  this  one  great  purpose.  R^o  man  more  sincerely  and  de- 
voutly loved  the  Church  of  England  than  John  Wesley,  but 
when  it  stood  in  the  way  of  saving  men’s  souls  he  could  not 
long  hesitate  as  to  his  duty.  Field-preaching  seemed  “ disor- 
derly,” and  excited  the  Church  prejudices  of  himself  and 
others,  but  when  the  church  doors  were  closed  against  him  he 

took  to  the  fields  ; when  the  work  required  “helpers,”  and 
7 


100 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


the  clergy  gave  none,  he  called  men  from  their  trades ; when 
the  sacrament  was  denied  Ins  followers,  he  j^rovided  for  its 
administration  in  his  “ preaching-houses  ; ” when  “ ordination  ” 
was  denied  by  the  English  bishops  and  became  a necessity, 
he  ordained  for  himself ; and  when  his  brothers  and  friends 
frowned  upon  him  for  his  “ irregularities  ” and  “ innovations  ” 
he  perseveringly  and  manfully  kept  to  his  work. 

Once  the  time  came  to  act  for  himself — for  he  was  slow  in 
assuming  a spirit  of  self-dependence — he  went  on  with  giant 
strides.  His  mother,  a woman  of  unusually  strong  common 
sense,  was  then  the  only  person  who  could  exercise  authority 
over  him ; but  she  did  little  to  restrain  him,  and  the  organiza- 
tion and  consolidation  of  his  Societies  went  on  rapidly,  aided 
by  a host  of  men  striving,  with  all  their  powers,  for  the  same 
ends.  His  discipline  was  severe  and  decisive,  but  he  had  the 
eyes  to  see  that  it  was  necessary,  the  sagacity  td  understand  the 
times  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  fortitude  to  meet  with  justice 
and  promptitude  all  the  needs  which  sprang  up  around  him. 
Besides,  if  his  rule  was  necessarily  severe,  it  was  not  oppressive, 
and  bred  up  no  craven  or  cringing  spirits.  The  Methodists 
cheerfully  submitted  to  his  rule ; but  where  are  the  traces  of 
slavishness?  The  very  carriage  of  their  leader  could  hardly 
fail  to  teach  them  a genuine  English  manliness.  ''  At  the  battles 
of  Dettingen  and  Eontenoy  there  was  evidence  enough  that 
John  Wesley  trained  up  no  men  of  cowardly  or  mean  spirit. 
There,  on  those  bloody  fields,  a small  band  of  Methodists  were 
the  pride  and  flower  of  the  English  forces.  Every  rogue  and 
reprobate  who  joined  that  little  knot  of  John  Wesley’s  follow- 
ers was  quickly  made  into  a new  man.  The  thief,  who  had 
often  risked  his  neck — the  drunkard,  who  had  besotted  himself 
—the  swearer,  who  only  knew  oaths — the  Sabbath-breaker  and 
the  unclean — were  transformed  into  honest,  orderly  soldiers, 
many  of  them  praying  privates,  who,  on  the  battle-day,  lapw- 
ing no  fear,  were  the  true  Methodist  Ironsides  of  King 
George,  and  before  whose  onset  the  enemy  quailed.  ^'^On  those 


Wesley’s  Influence. 


101 


memorable  fields  tbe  model  men  for  manliness  and  fortitude 
were  those  whose  courage  and  spirit  John  Wesley  had  in- 
spired. 

John  Wesley  fearlessly  faced  a fierce  turbulence,  brutal  as 
was  ever  let  loose  amid  the  confusion  of  mob  lawlessness  and 
riot.  When  he  aimed  his  blows  at  the  prejudices,  diversions, 
and  vices  of  society,  society  rose  in  passionate  resentment  that 
threatened  his  life.  The  very  social  and  national  instincts  of 
the  time  naturally  poured  out  the  vials  of  their  wrath  on  any 
object  they  could  find,  as  a mere  diversion  to  gratify  their  love 
of  riot  and  craelty;  mere  brutality  was  a popular  pastime,  a 
social  sensational  sport  which  delighted  in  nothing  so  much  as 
daily  disquiet  and  uproar.  Public  morals  were  so  bad  as 
hardly  to  admit  of  description,  and  the  man  who  daily  hurled 
thunderbolts  at  them  in  the  form  of  religious  truths  was  sure 
to  come  in  for  abuse.  The  clergy,  too,  in  the  background, 
annoyed  at  the  success  and  angered  at  the  rivalry  of  Wesley, 
at  first  encouraged  the  national  instincts,  and  animated  into 
outbreaks  the  wild  and  lawless  mobs  of  the  streets.  But  who 
ever  heard  of  W esley  being  cowed  by  threatened  popular  out- 
breaks, or  turning  his  back,  or  slinking  away  in  fear  of  a 
tumultuous  rabble  ? 

Wesley  was  a plain,  honest,  unai’tificial  Englishman,  who  de- 
tested all  flash  and  sham,  and  had  the  courage  to  say  so.  His 
love  of  the  natural  and  simple  had  made  him  almost  despise 
that  which  was  chiefly  embellishment.  He  was  a man  who 
hated  all  pretense  and  tinsel ; plain  in  his  dress,  his  habits,  his 
style,  his  speech,  his  food,  his  furniture,  his  tastes ; and  he  loved 
plain  trath  and  plain  people.  In  Lady  Huntingdon’s  mansion 
he  never  felt  much  at  home,  nor  did  he  rehsh  Charles  Wes- 
ley’s frequent  visits  there.  Yet  he  was  no  democrat  in  the  En- 
glish sense ; no  bigot,  no  leveler ; but  a lover  of  order,  and  loyal 
to  the  core.  Had  the  king  been  a tyi’ant  or  an  incorrigible  des- 
pot, with  all  his  deference  to  “ the  powers  that  be,”  he  would 
easily  have  found  his  way  to  the  conclusion — as  did  his  ances- 


102 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


tor  under  James  II. — that  he  was  in  his  wrong  place  on  the 
throne  of  England.  The  two  brothers  generally  acted  in  con- 
cert, thongh  J ohn  was  the  controlling  and  directing  spirit  in  all 
enterprises.  Sometimes  Charles  forgot  this.  ISTot  only  was 
John  the  elder,  bnt  he  had  always  been  the  originator,  the 
mover,  and  the  ruler ; and  he  fairly  claimed  the  right  of  keep- 
ing the  reins  in  his  own  hands.  Had  he  not  done  so,  Charles, 
with  his  unyielding  “ High  ’’-Churchmanship,  would  have 
wrecked  Methodism  fifty  times  over  during  his  life.  Like  all 
wise  governors,  John  knew  when  to  keep  the  bridle  tight,  and 
when  to  slacken  it ; but  Charles  did  not.  John  reined  Charles 
in  when  he  got  restive.  “ As  to  advice,”  he  wrote  to  Charles, 
“you  are  far  from  asking  it ; and  yet  I may  say  without  van- 
ity, I am  a better  judge  of  this  matter  than  either  Lady  Hunt- 
ingdon, Sally,  [his  brother’s  wife,]  Jones,  or  any  other.  . . . 
In  making  the  alteration  (as  to  the  sacrament)  you  never 
consulted  meP  And  then  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  with  whom  he 
was  on  the  best  terms,  he  wrote,  “ I can  truly  say  that  I neither 
fear  nor  desire  any  thing  from  your  lordship  ; to  speak  a rough 
truth,  I do  not  desire  any  intercourse  with  any  person  of  qual- 
ity in  England.  I mean  for  my  own  sake.  They  do  me  no 
good,  and  I fear  I can  do  them  none.”  . . . “ Have  you  a per- 
son in  aU  England  who  speaks  to  your  lordsliip  so  plain  and 
downright  as  I do  ? who  considers  not  the  peer^  but  the  man  ? 
who  is  jealous  over  you  with  a godly  jealousy,  lest  you  should 
be  less  a Christian  by  being  a nobleman  ? ” Yet  TTesley  was 
tractable  and  teachable  beyond  most  men.  Ho  man  would  take 
reproof  more  meekly,  nor  acknowledge  faults  more  manfully. 
He  pleaded  guilty  to  a charge  of  over-strong  language  used  to 
a controversial  opponent,  and  wept  while  he  said,  “ The  words 
you  mention  were  too  strong  y they  will  no  more  drop  from  my 
mouth.”  He  had  not  only  the  wisdom  of  a leader,  but  the  soul 
of  an  Enghshman.  Before  the  magnates  of  Oxford  he  said,  in 
his  sermon  before  the  University,  “ In  the  presence  of  the  great 
God,  you  that  are  in  authority  over  us,  and  whom  I reverence 


Wesley’s  Ietltjence. 


103 


for  your  office’  sake.  ...  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty, I ash,  what  rehgion  you  are  of ! ” 

But,  with  matchless  mardiness,  Wesley  was  neither  proud 
nor  seK-sufficient.  Whoever  wants  a pattern  of  docility  and 
wilLingness  to  learn,  may  go  to  the  early  history  of  the  Oxford 
leader  of  the  “ Holy  Club.”  A vulgar  error  prevails,  even 
among  Dissenters,  that  he  was  merely  a controversial  revivahst. 
All  that  is  true  of  this  is,  that  he  w’as  always  being  pestered  by 
petty  cavilers.  As  to  controversy,  he  detested  it,  and  when- 
ever he  could  he  shunned  it,  and  often  forbade  his  “ preachers  ” 
the  practice.  Though  he  disputed  with  a master  mind,  and 
made  all  opponents  quail  before  his  sterhng  common  sense  and 
irresistible  logic,  he  never  sought  nor  encouraged  disputation, 
except  with  the  vice  and  depravity  with  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded. In  the  Calvinian  controversy  he  was  not  the  aggress- 
or, but  was  dragged  and  driven  into  it.  All  his  followers  were 
again  and  again  warned  not  to  touch  it ; and  but  that  he  was 
abused  and  badgered  into  conflict  by  a set  of  flerce  fanatics, 
John  Wesley  would  never  have  appeared  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  of  his  country  as  the  chief  of  those  who  drove  Cal- 
vinism from  British  pulpits.  As  a revivalist,  for  over  half 
a century  he  traversed  the  country  without  fee  or  pay,  and 
sought  to  revive  primitive  Christianity  in  the  hearts  and  lives 
of  the  people.  His  preaching  usually  was  quiet  as  a Quaker’s, 
and  stately  as  the  lectures  of  a professor.  For  years  his  inquir- 
ing and  teachable  spirit  was  the  most  striking  and  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  his  character.  Long  and  long,  while  he  was 
yearning  to  understand  “the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,”  he  sought 
hght  and  guidance  from  his  strong-minded  and  well-informed 
mother,  a woman  quite  competent  to  discuss  rehgious  questions 
with  any  bishop  then  on  the  bench.  A man  himself  of  un- 
common parts,  and,  in  those  days,  of  uncommon  culture,  he  did 
not  seek  after  the  truth  by  seeking,  like  many  sharp-witted 
men,  to  pick  it  up  incidentally  as  it  might  drop  from  others ; 
but  he  went  like  a learner,  with  all  the  simphcity  of  a child,  to 


104 


The  Wesley  Mehoeial  Volhjie. 


be  taugbt.  Among  the  Moravians  be  tbongbt  he  saw  the 
pure  Gospel,  and  seemed  never  at  rest  but  when  in  their 
company.  He  joined  their  Society  at  “ Fetter  Lane  ” simply 
because  he  thought  he  had  found  the  true  “ followers  of  the 
Lamb.”  To  the  Continent  he  went,  and  spent  weeks  with 
these  people  at  their  head-quarters,  listening  to  the  teaching  of 
men  whose  chief  characteristic  appears  to  have  been  a large 
amount  of  general  ignorance,  simply  because  he  thought 
they  understood  better  than  others  the  “ plan  of  salvation ; ” 
and  he  submitted  in  England  to  an  amount  of  personal 
catechising  and  impertinent  dogmatism  that  can  only  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  he  had  resolved  nothing  should 
stand  in  the  way  of  his  finding  the  truth.  He  soon  found, 
however,  that,  with  a httle  truth,  there  was  among  the  “ United 
Brethren  ” of  that  day  (we  do  not  think  it  applies  to  the  pres- 
ent) a great  deal  of  fanatical  foohng,  which  did  not  do  for  the 
man  who  had  about  the  clearest  head  and  the  most  practical 
and  logical  mind  in  the  country.  In  the  same  anxious  and 
teachable  spirit  he  went  to  the  celebrated  William  Law,  than 
whom  no  man  was  better  qualified  to  direct  and  instruct  in  * 
questions  of  practical  rehgion.  Law’s  teaching  had  much 
weight  with  Wesley.  But  when  he  subsequently  foxind  that 
Law  had  led  him  wrong  on  a vital  point,  the  shock  and  revul- 
sion were  so  violent  that  he  wrote  an  angry  and  pettish  letter 
to  Law,  making  strong  and  unwarrantable  charges  against  him 
for  having  misled  him  so  seriously  in  his  search  for  truth. 
This  was  a grave  mistake,  one  of  the  txoo  mistakes  of  a busy 
hfe  of  nearly  ninety  years,  and  for  which  Wesley  suffered  the 
penalty  by  a well-merited  rebuke  administered  by  Law  for 
what  he  rightly  considered  an  unjustifiable  impertinence.  Still 
Wesley  was  young  and  inexperienced;  but  his  earnestness,  sin- 
cerity, and  manliness  are  transparent  through  the  whole  of  this 
unfortunate  indiscretion.  He  was  so  intent  on  his  work  thus 
early  that  any  sensible  person  might  have  taught  Wesley,  pro- 
vided the  teaching  had  any  thing  in  it  worth  learning.  Amid 


Wesley’s  Influence. 


105 


a rude,  vicious,  and  materialized  age,  he  vras  in  a sacred  hnrry 
to  get  a vivid  sense  of  all  that  related  to  the  unseen  and  spirit- 
ual ; and  it  Y'as  too  much  for  his  anxious  spirit  to  bear,  when 
he  found  he  had  been  led  into  darkness  by  one  he  thought 
pre-eminently  qualified  to  lead  him  into  light.  An  error  it 
doubtless  was,  but  it  was  born  of  the  same  spirit  and  temper 
which  led  Wesley,  above  all  other  men,  into  a yearning  desire 
to  awaken  a depraved  nation  to  a new  life — a life  founded  on 
the  ideas  of  an  ever-present  God,  and  of  an  all-sufficient  Sav- 
iour ever  nigh  at  hand. 

Wesley  was  a man  who  cared  much  for  his  friends,  but  he 
ever  loved  truth  more  than  persons.  Where  was  love  ever 
seen  more  deep  and  fervent  than  that  between  Wesley  and  his 
great  and  large-hearted  fellow- worker,  George  Whitefield  ? 
But,  though  Wesley  avoided  all  cause  of  offense,  and  resolved 
never  to  come  in  collision  with  him,  and  though  they  mutually 
agreed  not  to  dispute  with  each  other  on  the  Calvinian  ques- 
tion, and  though  Whitefield,  in  his  zeal  and  natural  impetuos- 
ity of  temper,  violated  his  pledge  by  a violent  attack  on 
Wesley,  the  latter  never  retahated,  and  declared  he  never 
would,  however  much  he  might  be  provoked.  Indeed,  when 
Whitefield  decided  to  violate  this  mutual  covenant,  and  showed 
Wesley  his  manuscript  prior  to  printing,  to  save  him  from 
gross  mistakes  in  matters  of  fact  and  to  protect  him  from  rid- 
icule on  account  of  his  ignorance,  Wesley  suggested  certain 
omissions.  Whitefield,  urged  on  by  his  Calvinistic  friends, 
pubhshed,  and  preached,  too,  against  Wesley  in  no  measured 
terms ; but  W esley  kept  his  word  not  to  avenge  himself,  and 
left  open  the  way  to  a reconciliation,  which,  later  on,  led  to 
a renewal  of  the  friendship,  which  was  never  again  disturbed. 
This  we  call  manliness,  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  in  the  history 
of  Enghsh  literature,  especially  when  we  remember  Wesley’s 
advantage  over  his  antagonist  in  culture,  logical  acmnen,  and 
intellectual  force. 

But  during  the  Calvinian  controversy,  in  which  both  sides  were 


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hotly  engaged  for  many  years,  tlieir  usual  friendly  intercourse 
for  some  time  was  interrupted.  Wesley,  however,  engaged 
his  opponents  elsewhere.  He  would  not  dispute  with  his 
friend,  hut  no  friendship,  however  sacred,  could  close  his  mouth 
or  restrain  his  pen  against  what  he  regarded  deadly  error. 
His  vigorous  and  logical  mind  could  see  nothing  but  a horrible 
cruelty  in  Whitefield’s  notion  that  a large  portion  of  his  fellow- 
Christians  were  condemned  to  a fate  the  mere  thought  of 
which  should  make  every  serious  man  shudder ; nor  could  he 
see  any  thing  much  better  in  Whitefield’s  views  of  slavery. 
About  vital  truths  like  these  Wesley  could  make  no  compro- 
mise. Whitefield,  it  is  true,  pleaded  with  the  planters  of 
Georgia  for  kindness  toward  the  negroes,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  helped  on  the  institution  of  slavery  by  his  evidence  before 
the  House  of  Commons.  Thus  this  apostolic  man,  whose 
glowing  eloquence  brought  from  the  eyes  of  the  rough  Kings- 
wood  colliers  “ tears  which  made  gutters  down  their  black 
cheeks,”  by  showing  sympathy  on  the  one  hand  and  a willing- 
ness to  enslave  on  the  other,  well  vindicated  the  spirit  and  tem- 
per of  Calvinism,  and  ran  counter  to  the  deep  feelings  and 
equally  deep  convictions  of  Wesley.  It  is  well,  perhaps,  that 
Wesley  and  Whitefield  parted  company  for  a season,  because 
he  who  at  the  same  time  could  extol  the  loving-ldndness  of  the 
Creator  and  make  him  chargeable  with  “reprobation” — who 
could  seek  with  one  hand  to  lessen  the  evils,  and  with  the 
other  to  enlarge  the  area,  of  slavery — was  hardly  the  man  to 
work  harmoniously  with  John  Wesley,  who  could  only  see  in- 
finite love  in  the  great  Father,  and  whose  whole  life  was  an 
incessant  yearning  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole  race. 

John  Wesley  showed  his  countrymen  the  true  methods 
of  rousing  into  intellectual  activity  an  uneducated  and  igno- 
rant populace.  There  were,  indeed,  no  lack  of  men  of  talent 
and  genius ; of  men,  too,  who  saw  and  regretted  the  gross  igno- 
rance of  the  times ; but  no  one  seemed  to  know  how  to  reach 
the  evil ; how  to  teach,  and  what  to  teach.  There  were  men 


"Wesley’s  Influence. 


107 


■who  made  efforts  to  mend  matters  by  parliamentai’y  inquiries 
and  resolutions,  but  tbeir  best  efforts  were  fitful,  feeble,  and 
futile.  Tbe  better  disposed  and  most  capable  aimed  badly, 
for  they  shot  right  over  the  heads  of  the  people,  with  the 
effect  of  blank  cartridge  fired  over  the  heads  of  a mob,  to 
be  ridiculed  and  mocked.  Pope  wrote  inimitable  poetry; 
Garrick  on  the  stage  did  his  brilliant  mimicry  ; Boling- 
broke  floru’ished  proudly  his  false  and  fatal  philosophy ; John- 
son, with  unrivaled  diction,  discussed  etymologies,  politics, 
poetry,  and  pubhc  morals  ; Doddridge  wrote  seriously  and  well 
on  the  “ Pise  and  Progress  of  Peligion  in  the  Soul,”  but  died 
early;  Warburton  descanted  learnedly  on  the  “Divine  Lega- 
tion of  Moses,”  and  found  that  the  Jewish  system  knew  noth- 
ing of  a future  or  an  immortal  life ; David  Hume,  with  sullen 
sarcasm  and  a stoic’s  indifference,  canted  about  the  “Natural 
History  of  Religion,”  which  made  Warburton  call  him  “that 
low  fellow,  Hume  ; ” Swift  devoted  himself  to  what  he  thought 
good  joking,  and  was  an  expert  in  ridicule  and  raillery ; 
Priestley,  enamored  of  Socinianism  and  philosopliical  necessity, 
discovered  that  there  was  no  such  entity  as  an  immaterial 
spirit ; Berkeley,  that  in  the  whole  universe  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  matter ; Tindal  proclaimed  “ Christianity  as  Old  as  the 
Creation;”  Chatham  electrified  the  “Upper  House,”  and  made 
its  name  the  symbol  of  finished  oratory ; Chesterfield,  if  not  a 
dancing-master,  made  excellent  dandies ; North  laid  foolish  taxes 
on  the  colonies ; Wilkes,  spite  of  his  hideous  squint  the  most 
popular  man  of  his  day,  was  professor  of  lewdness,  and  expos- 
itor-general of  unbridled  license  and  ■vulgar  clap-trap ; Defoe 
taught  boys  not  to  run  away  from  home,  lest  they  should  get 
separated  with  some  good  man  Friday  from  ci^vilization ; Burke, 
in  rounded  periods  and  rolling  eloquence  never  since  equaled, 
taught  the  science  of  politics  and  statesmanship  ■with  a wisdom 
not  excelled  by  ancient  tribunal  or  modern  senator ; and  the 
clergy.  Episcopal  and  Dissenting,  see-sawed  in  the  pulpits  on 
the  “ sovereign  decrees  ” and  the  obligations  of  morality,  till 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume, 


tlie  people  lauglied  at  their  theology,  and  left  them  to  preach 
it  to  the  pews.  How  w^as  all  this  to  raise  an  ignorant  and  be- 
sotted populace  to  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  and  activity  ? 
A man  was  required  to  take  a sensible  and  practical  view  of 
the  real  condition  and  urgent  wants  of  the  country,  and  that 
man  was  John  Wesley. 

To  his  pow’erful  and  rousing  preaching  Wesley  superadded 
attention  to  the  education  of  the  young.  From  the  first  he 
saw  that  where  he  could  he  must  begin  with  the  children ; so 
that,  the  pulpit  working  from  above  and  the  schools  from  below, 
he  might  permeate  the  social  mass,  quicken  into  fife  and  activ- 
ity the  national  mental  toiqDor,  and  infuse  spiritual  vitality  into 
that  which  had  been  little  less  than  a body  of  mental  and  moral 
death.  In  his  “ early  Oxford  days  ” he  was  soon  with  the  chil- 
dren ; such  members  of  the  “ Holy  Club  ” as  he  saw  fit  being 
appointed  to  do  the  work  at  the  little  school  of  ragged  urchins. 
At  the  work-house  and  prisons  they  attended  on  the  same  er- 
rand, and  many  a poor  child  and  many  a gray-headed  thief  and 
vagabond,  who  entered  these  places  bhnd  as  moles,  came  out 
able  to  read  the  Bible,  write  a letter,  and  “ cast  simple  accounts.” 
Hone  in  those  days  saw  so  clearly  as  Wesley  that  to  teach  the 
heart  you  must  go  through  the  understanding.  At  Bristol,  at 
Kingswood  among  the  colliers,  and  at  the  “ Found ery,”  Wesley 
early  estabhshed  schools.  Wherever  in  his  earlier  and  later 
travels  an  opportunity  offered,  he  provided  the  means  of  initia- 
tion into  intellectual  fife.  Easy  and  natural  as  this  may  aj)pear 
in  our  day,  it  was  the  reverse  in  Wesley’s  days.  In  this  respect 
modern  thought  and  sentiment  are  a complete  inversion  of  the 
thought  and  sentiment  of  the  early  Hanoverian  period,  and  no 
man  did  so  much  in  the  start  of  this  “ turning  up  side  down  ” as 
John  Wesley.  It  was  not  popular  then  to  have  ragged-schools ; 
it  would  have  been  deemed  mistaken  meddling,  or  a modified 
madness.  It  was  then  deemed  an  unmitigated  folly  to  educate 
the  vulgar  poor,  and  Wesley  was  among  the  very  first  public 
men  of  that  age  to  teach,  by  precept  and  practice,  that  it  was 


AY  esley’s  Inelueistce. 


109 


consummate  wisdom.  True,  tliere  was  in  Germany  some  recog- 
nition of  the  principle  during  Luther’s  struggle,  and  in  England 
during  that  of  Cranmer  and  Cromwell,  but  the  question  was 
buried  in  a Romish  rubbish-heap,  pertaining  not  to  a “ new  birth,” 
“ a clean  heart,”  and  a Christian  deportment,  but  to  images  and 
rehcs,  doctrines  and  discipline,  fast  days  and  saint  days,  monk- 
ery, moonshine,  and  silly  asceticism.  In  England,  Henry,  in 
his  zeal  for  Protestantism  and  haste  to  get  rid  of  his  wives  and 
the  Pope,  declared  every  man  should  be  able  “to  read  the 
Bible,”  and  actually  chained  one  to  the  puljjit  in  most  parish 
churches,  that  any  body  might  go  and  practice.  But  he  was 
ambitious  to  be  pope  himself  in  England,  and  there  is  very  lit- 
tle doubt  that  Henry’s  motives  were  pure  hatred  to  Rome — 
which  he  rightly  thought  the  Bible  would  foster — rather  than 
any  love  of  popular  education.  AYhen  AY esley  appeared  on  the 
stage  the  general  opinion  was,  that  educating  the  common  peo- 
ple was  the  readiest  road  to  revolution  and  ruin.  The  seats  of 
learning,  even,  were  centers  of  frivolity,  idleness,  and  luxury. 
The  “ Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge  ” had, 
indeed,  come  into  being,  and  in  the  face  of  popular  opinion  had 
set  up  a “ charity-school ; ” but  the  most  formidable  obstacle 
it  met  with  was  the  general  objection  that  “ charity-schools 
bred  up  children  in  ignorance  and  jgride^’’  which  it  tried,  in 
very  delicate  terms,  to  coax  rather  than  reason  the  public  into 
believing  was,  perhajos,  not  quite  and  wholly  true. 

AYesley’s  school  at  Kingswood  has  a noble  history.  The 
higher-class  school  for  preachers’  sons,  and  for  the  children  of 
such  parents  as  could  afford  to  pay,  stiU  exists,  but  on  a differ- 
ent site ; and  there  are  now  hundreds  who  venerate  the  memory 
of  the  old  institution,  grateful  for  the  influence  it  has  exerted 
on  their  characters  and  lives.  Since  the  days  of  AYesley  the 
eyes  of  Englishmen  have  gradually  opened  to  the  importance 
of  popiilar  education ; till  now  we  find  those  who  would  force 
it  gratis  down  the  throats  of  both  ill  and  well-to-do  people,  at 
the  expense  of  others  whose  means  are  barely  sufficient  to  meet 


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their  own  educational  requirements.  Zealots  are  they,  who,  to 
gain  the  suffrages  of  the  ignorant,  improvident,  and  lazy,  have 
run  into  the  extremes  of  the  educational  mania,  and  attempted 
to  bi’ing  odium  on  that  which  in  itself  is  priceless ! If  it  is 
wrong  to  force  the  ignorant,  extravagant,  and  thriftless  to  pay 
for  their  own  children,  it  can  hardly  be  right  to  force  the  sober, 
industrious,  and  thrifty  poor — who  are  unable  to  educate  their 
own — to  pay  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  others. 

The  clergy  of  the  day  were  quite  incapable  of  coping  with 
the  low  mental  condition  of  the  country.  If  they  tried  they 
signally  failed ; and  incompetency  was  intensified  by  misfor- 
tune. Since  the  Restoration  a deplorable  reaction  had  set  in 
against  Puritanism,  and  it  reached  its  climax  about  the  time  of 
Wesley,  the  major  part  of  the  clergy  imbibing  and  encouraging 
the  general  feeling.  Every  thing  was  done  to  cover  the  men 
and  movement  of  that  age  with  contempt  and  scorn.  It  was 
systematically  attempted  to  invert  all  that  was  peculiar  to  the 
time  of  the  Puritans.  Even  Puritanical  extremes  were  an- 
swered, paid  back,  with  their  opjiosites  ; hence  ignorance  and  its 
consequents,  crime  and  its  social  imimrity,  fioated  like  a thick 
fetid  scum  on  the  surface  of  society.  With  this,  too,  the  clergy 
had  lost  their  social  standing ; and  with  this,  again,  their  intel- 
lectual hold  of  the  people — only  the  natural  and  inevitable  re- 
sult of  their  own  folly.  Every- where  they  were  objects  of 
dislike ; and  many  were  drunken,  lazy,  ignorant,  and  worse. 
The  lower  clergy  in  good  society  were  treated  as  menials,  and 
the  poor  and  uneducated  were  not  likely  to  respect  them.  Be- 
sides, though  there  were  many  good  and  clever  men  among 
them,  yet  commonly  their  education  was  scanty,  and  their 
ignorance  so  gross  that  they  were  not  the  people  to  set  up  as 
intellectual  leaders.  In  their  churches  they  failed  to  preserve 
decent  order  and  decorum.  As  a rule,  fashionable  people  went 
to  a fashionable  church ; but  they  went,  not  to  be  instructed, 
but  to  whisper  scandal,  to  use  a fan  handsomely,  aj)pear  flashily 
arrayed  in  satins  and  bedecked  with  diamonds,  and  to  peep  at 


"Wesley’s  Ijtfluexce. 


Ill 


eaeli  other  through  an  opera-glass.  A ministry  that  could  not 
mend  this  Avas  not  likely  to  mend  the  midnight  darkness  'out 
of  doors.  Besides,  when  the  flock  loses  its  respect  for  the 
shepherd  the  shepherd  cannot  control  the  flock. 

But  Wesley’s  chief  means  of  awakening  the  intellectual  life 
of  the  nation  AA-as  the  pulpit.  ISTo  sooner  had  he  discovered  his 
mistake  in  joining  the  Moravians  than  he  retired  from  “ Fetter 
Lane,”  taking  as  many  as  chose  to  follow  to  the  “ old  Foundery,” 
where  he  formed  a Society  of  his  own,  and  drew  up  a set  of  rules- 
for  its  direction  and  government.  The  Unitas  Fratmm  thus 
thrown  ofi,  W esley  had  thrown  a millstone  from  about  his  neck 
which  eventually  would  have  drowned  him  in  that  sea  of  mysti- 
cism and  mud  in  which  the  IJnited  Brethren  were  then  floun- 
deriug.  Unfettered,  he  was  now  ready  for  his  great  work  of 
awakenment  by  preaching.  He  declared  he  could  not  do  with 
these  “ silent  ” people  and  their  “ sublime  divinity,”  “ brim- 
ful,” as  Charles  said,  “ of  proud  wrath  and  flerceness ; ” who 
“love  preeminence,  and  make  their  proselytes  twofold  more 
the  children  of  the  deAul  than  they  were  before  ; ” who  believed 
that  to  obtain  faith  “ we  must  wait  for  Christ  and  be  still,  with- 
out the  use  of  the  means  of  grace ; ” not  “ go  to  church ; ” 
“ not  take  the  sacrament ; ” “ not  read  the  Scriptures  ; ” not 
“ use  private  prayer ; ” and  not  “ do  temporal,”  or  attempt  “ to 
get  spiritual,  good.”  Besides,  Wesley  saw  that  Moravianism 
was  not  aggressive,  and  could  never  convert  the  world,  a work 
he  had  set  his  heart  to  accomplish.  “ Stand  ye  in  the  way ; 
ask  for  the  old  paths,”  was  his  text  soon  after  he  got  loose 
from  “Fetter  Lane.” 

Separated  from  the  MoraAdans,  the  London  church  doors 
closed  against  him,  and  having  found  “the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,”  Wesley  had  the  world  fairly  before  liim,  and  began 
again  his  preaching  career  AAuth  redoubled  energy.  But  he 
seemed  thrust  outside,  and  as  if  his  path  were  blocked.  The 
thought  of  preaching  on  “ unconsecrated  groimd  ” shocked  his 
prejudice.  Every  inch  of  him  a Churchman,  he  recoiled  from 


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the  idea  of  “ unauthorized  ” and  “ irregular  preaching.”  But  the 
people  were  “ perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge,”  and  he  could 
not  answer  for  the  stupidity  of  the  Church  in  turning  the  key 
on  him,  nor  wait  the  slow  movements  of  the  Bishops,  who 
might  or  might  not  turn  the  key  back.  Whitefield,  thus  early, 
was  preaching  to  congregated  thousands  in  the  fields  at  Kings- 
wood ; the  great  Teacher  had  given  his  unrivalled  “ Sermon  ” 
out  of  doors,  and  even  “ on  the  Mount ; ” he  had  also  conse- 
crated fields  and  lanes  by  his  beautiful  parables  and  miracles, 
and  John  Wesley,  at  once  and  forever,  had  done  with  this 
“ Church  scruple.”  When  Whitefield  had  to  return  to  Amer- 
ica Wesley  stepped  into  his  place  at  Bristol  and  Ivingswood, 
where  he  took  to  the  broad  fields  as  his  sanctuary,  consecrated, 
not  by  a Bishop,  hut  by  the  example  of  his  great  Master. 
There  he  stood,  amid  a huge  multitude,  assembled  round  a 
small  mount,  scattering  the  bread  of  life  to  inquiring  men  and 
women.  Here  was  an  “ innovation  ; ” but  it  was  now  Wesley’s 
chosen  method  of  awakening  the  indolent  and  ignorant  of 
his  countrymen.  For  half  a century  he  continued  the  “un- 
authorized ” practice  with  a constant,  continuous  success  hith- 
erto unknown  in  the  history  of  Great  Britain.  The  blessed 
results  are  now  known  in  all  lands.  The  mental  torpor  of  all 
classes  was  roused,  the  intellect  of  the  masses  of  the  country 
began  to  show  signs  of  life,  and  from  that  day  to  the  present 
we  have  had  no  popular  mental  slumber  such  as  that  which 
overshadowed  the  land  in  the  time  of  the  first  and  second 
Georges.  A significant  fact  this ; not  a swagger,  or  an  orator- 
ical fiourish,  for  Wesley  not  only  did  his  own  grand  work,  but 
sent  fife,  and  energy,  and  intellectual  activity  into  every  pulpit 
in  the  three  kingdoms.  Look  at  his  successors  at  work  to-day 
in  the  Methodist  world ; not  a couple  of  men  as  then,  but  we 
see  them  in  21,000  itinerant  ministers,  and  at  least  60,000  local 
preachers — nearly  100,000  men  training  and  guiding  the  intel- 
lect, and  hammering  away  at  the  ignorance,  of  the  world,  in 
a spirit  which  was  born  of  the  boy  who  used  to  play  about 


'Wesley’s  Iyeluence. 


113 


and  Tvas  taken  from  the  window  of  the  blazing  Epwortb 
narsonage. 

Wesley’s  successful  preacbing,  however,  soon  led  him  into 
another  difficulty.  He  required  fellow-laborers,  for  the  fields 
were  ripe  for  reaping  ; but  whence  were  they  to  come  ? The 
Bishops  refused,  as  before  intimated,  to  “ ordain  ” and  set  apart 
men  for  such  a work.  The  world  was  “ in  the  arms  of  the  wicked 
one,”  and  Wesley,  with  a word  of  encouragement  from  his 
clear-headed  mother,  could  not  wait.  Spiritual  instniction  and 
guidance,  as  well  as  intellectual  awakening,  were  required,  and 
in  the  face  of  this  pressing  need  “ ordination  was  a fiea-bite.” 
All  the  help  he  could  obtain  from  the  clergy  he  appropriated, 
but  this  was  utterly  inadequate.  Then  he  called  out  the  most 
active,  pious,  and  strong-minded  of  his  converts,  and  all  over 
the  country  organized  his  Societies  and  his  preacliing  staff. 
Here  was  another  great  work  thrown  upon  his  hands — the 
preparation  and  training  of  a band  of  uneducated  but  earnest, 
zealous,  and  devout  men  for  the  work  of  the  ministry.  Good, 
robust,  hard-headed,  wide-awake  Enghshmen  were  Wesley’s 
first  “ helpers,”  “ preachers,”  or  “ expounders.”  A new  ma- 
chine was  this,  of  Wesley’s  own  construction,  but  when  set  in 
motion  it  worked  well.  The  clever  machinist  stopped  the 
shght  creaking  now  and  again  with  the  hand  of  a genius,  by 
adjusting  an  unsteady  wheel,  changing  an  ill-adapted  piston  or 
crank,  or  by  inserting  a new  valve.  For  nearly  a century  and 
a half  the  machine  has  rolled  on,  and  has  not  been  superseded 
by  any  improved  mechanism  ; and  it  promises  to  work  with  its 
vast  energies  against  ignorance  and  vice  for  centuries  yet  to 
come.  Wesley,  indeed,  has  been  blamed  for  keeping  the  man- 
agement of  his  ecclesiastical  machinery  exclusively  in  his  own 
hands ; but  these  objectors  know  not  what  they  say.  It  was 
quite  new,  and  John  Wesley  knew  best  what  to  do  with  his 
own  invention,  and  did  wisely  and  well  in  acting  as  sole  en- 
gineer. He  originated  it,  and  while  he  lived  had  the  right  to 
manage  it ; nor  was  he  hkely  to  allow  any  tinkering  of  his 


114  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

handiwork,  because  he  saw  unskillful  hands  might  soon  break 
it  to  pieces.  To  make,  to  manage,  to  modify,  and  to  mend  his 
own  machine  was  the  legitimate  work  of  W esley,  who  knew  all 
its  strong  and  weak  places ; nor  was  it  reasonable  to  expect  him 
to  transfer  it  till  called  upon  by  that  Providence  by  which  he 
was  constituted  constructor  and  governor. 

In  the  management  of  his  “Itinerancy,”  Wesley  displayed 
masterly  skill.  There  was  no  sentimental  delicacy  which  im- 
pelled him  to  overlook  serious  faults.  He  knew  his  men  were 
called  to  the  solemn  and  serious  work,  and  he  resolved  to  have 
the  work  done  in  an  earnest  and  serious  way.  And  though  he 
could  not  sharjply  check  important  mistakes  and  shortcomings, 
he  would  allow  no  one  to  tread  on  the  rights  of  his  “ preachers.” 
They  were  all  his  brethren,  and  as  such  were  treated  with  ten- 
der regard ; but  in  a subordinate  sense  they  were  his  servants 
and  he  was  their  master.  Had  it  not  been  so,  Wesley  could 
never  have  trained  up  such  an  earnest  body  of  successful 
laborers.  He  alone  was  responsible  for  their  selection,  and  he 
rightly  felt  himself  responsible  for  the  results.  It  is  idle  to 
speak  of  his  course  as  arbitrary  while  the  whole  weight  of  the 
vast  movement  was  on  his  own  shoulders.  His  tremendous  re- 
sponsibility demanded  the  display  of  extraordinary  energy  and 
the  force  of  all  his  authority,  and  his  course  finds  ample  justifi- 
cation in  its  triumphant  issues.  With  the  skill  of  a born  ruler 
he  ruled  his  assistants ; and  with  a rule  which  won,  not  simply 
their  esteem,  but  their  reverence.  When  his  followers  multi- 
plied, and  his  “ helpers  ” in  equal  ratio,  and  when  the  general 
awakening  of  interest  and  thought  followed,  Wesley  at  once 
saw  the  necessity  of  raising  the  intellectual  standard  of  his  men. 
As  this  pressed  itself  on  his  attention  (1Y46)  Dr.  Doddridge, 
the  most  eminent  man  among  the  Dissenters  of  the  day^ — famed 
far  and  near  as  a trainer  of  young  men  for  the  ministry — was 
applied  to  for  advice  and  direction.  Wesley  asked  him  for  a list 
of  the  best  books  as  a course  of  study  for  preachers.  A rather 
formidable  programme  was  supplied,  and  Wesley  set  to  work. 


Wesley’s  Ineluence, 


1.15 


We  find  a number  of  these  recommended  books  in  the  form  of 
“ extracts”  and  “ abridgments  ” in  bis  fifty  volumes  entitled  tbe 
“ Cbi'istian  Library,”  printed  and  pubbsbed  by  tbe  energy  and 
enterprise  of  this  one  man,  without  money  and  without  patron- 
age. It  was  a common  practice  with  Wesley  when  books  were 
too  costly,  to  go  to  work  and  cheapen  them  by  publishing  cheap 
editions,  or  by  abridging  and  publishing  them  so  as  to  lower 
their  cost.  When  his  men  stood  in  need  of  intellectual  pabulum 
he  was  not  the  man  to  leave  them  to  starve. 

But  again,  John  Wesley  showed  his  countrymen,  better  than 
ever  they  had  been  shown  before,  the  true  methods  of  raising  the 
social  and  domestic  life  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  community. 
To  the  objector  we  need  only  answer,  If  it  had  been  done  be- 
fore, by  whom  f where  f and  when  f If  we  ask  the  last  eighteen 
hundi’ed  years  of  history,  it  only  re-echoes  these  questions.  It 
is  not  down  in  the  annals.  It  is  not  even  whispered  in  tra- 
dition. There  is  no  impress  on  the  old  and  by-gone  societies. 
There  are  no  traces  in  the  vast  relics  of  the  past.  There  are 
no  music  and  rhythms  of  the  same  thrill  and  cadence ; no 
deep  harmonies  of  the  same  spiritual  hfe  in  the  songs,  and 
ballads,  and  hymns  of  any  of  our  forefathers  ; and  aU  we  want 
is,  to  know  “ by  whom  \ ” “ where  ? ” and  “ when  ? ” 

At  the  opening  of  Wesley’s  career  the  social  condition  of 
England  was  more  deplorable  even  than  its  intellectual  lifeless- 
ness. The  Puritan  reaction  on  the  morals  of  the  people  was 
patent  every-where,  and  the  hatred  of  Puritanism  was  quite 
hvely  and  fresh,  and  more  earnest  and  keen,  in  the  reign  of 
George  II.  than  it  was  at  the  Restoration.  The  rule  of  Puri- 
tanism was  often  severe  and  even  rigorous,  and  it  naturally 
bred  up  many  bitter  enemies.  This  bitterness  had  lived  on  for 
generations,  and  indulged  itself  in  peculiar  modes  of  thought, 
and  speech,  and  habits,  as  well  as  in  extreme  and  opposite 
developments  of  social  and  political  institutions,  until  it  had 
stamped  a very  ugly  impress  on  the  national  features.  Where 

Puritanism  had  sought  to  suppress  vice  by  penal  laws,  the  anti- 
8 


116 


The  Wesley  Mehoeial  Volume. 


Puritans  had  replied  to  this  by  substituting  unbridled  license. 
Vice  and  immorality  of  the  coarsest  kinds  had  thus  become 
national  and  ingrained.  This  was  bewailed,  too,  by  men  of  all 
parties,  and  it  was  proposed  to  correct  its  more  hideous  feat- 
ures by  act  of  Parliament.  The  pohtical  jdots  since  Crom- 
well’s time  were  only  too  true  an  index  of  the  condition  of  the 
country.  Oates,  Bedloe,  Dugdale,  Dangerfield,  Judge  Jeffreys, 
and  other  similar  ruffians,  truly  symbolized  the  social  and  moral 
state  of  England,  and  little  or  nothing  was  being  done  to  stem 
the  torrent  of  vice  and  crime.  Addison  and  the  “ Essayists  ” 
certainly  satirized  public  vices,  but  it  was  like  shooting  scpiibs 
at  an  impregnable  fortress,  for  the  vicious  simply  laughed  at 
and  despised  them.  Hogarth  tried  to  paint  them  out  of  coun- 
tenance by  his  powerful  pictures,  but  Hogarth  might  as  well 
have  been  beating  the  wind  with  his  paint-brush.  There  was 
really  no  virtue  in  the  colors  of  the  painter’s  palette,  nor  in  the 
stately  moralizing  of  the  “ Essayists,”  to  reach  the  hard  heart 
and  feculent  morality  of  that  age.  The  people  had  diversions, 
but  the  most  admired  and  cherished  ones  were,  “ bull-baiting,” 
“ bear-baiting,”  “ badger-baiting,”  “ cock-fighting,”  and  “ cock- 
throwing.” The  amusements  and  the  temper  of  the  sight-seers 
were  much  after  the  Dahoman  fashion,  minus  the  human  vic- 
tims. To  any  but  a savage  ear ' the  coarse  jesting,  which  can- 
not be  repeated,  was  shdeking.  If  by  some  sad  accident  a 
man  lost  his  life,  it  became  a subject  of  vulgar  joke.  Among 
poor  and  rich  drunkenness  was  nearly  universal ; nearly  every 
body  sold  gin,  till  Government  imposed  a heavy  license  on  its 
sale,  and  then  numbers  of  men  lived  by  turning  informers. 
Every-where  men  sold  their  votes  just  as  they  would  sell  eggs 
or  shoes.  Public  immorality  was  a crying  scandal,  and  Wal- 
pole declared  that  an  “ enemy  in  the  field  ” might  “ buy  the 
country,”  and  that  every  member  of  the  Commons  “ had 
his  price.”  Private  life  was  fouled  at  its  fountains,  and  the 
upper  classes  were  specially  distinguished  for  their  licen- 
tiousness, the  relation  of  the  details  of  which  modern  taste 


Wesley’s  IisrFLUEkcE. 


117 


does  not  permit.  Things  of  shame  or  of  pride  were  so  in- 
verted that  “fashionable  gentlemen”  blushed  crimson  when 
accused  of  purity.  Petty  thieving,  shop-lifting,  house-break- 
ing, highway-robbery,  and  murder,  were  well  represented  in 
the  age  which  managed  to  capture  and  hang  Dick  Turpin  and 
Jack  Sheppard.  Birt  instead  of  the  “whip,”  the  “stocks,” 
and  the  “wheel,”  the  courts  imitated  the  barbarity  of  the 
“ Poad,”  and  used  the  rope  and  the  gallows  for  thefts  of  a few 
shillings  ; that  is,  the  spirit  of  the  laws  had  much  of  the  spmt 
of  the  lawless.  The  crowd  would  gladly  stone  a culprit  in  the 
pillory,  not  because  they  respected  public  rights,  or  the  penal 
code,  but  from  sheer  delight  in  barbarity.  Altogether,  social 
morality  stank  like  a cess-pool,  and  those  sunk  deepest  in  the 
mass  of  impurity  were  the  people  John  Wesley  set  himself  to 
regenerate. 

Thi’ough  a life  of  over  fifty-three  years  of  ceaseless  toil  Wes- 
ley pursued  his  one  object,  with  results  that  then  amazed  the 
civilized  world,  and  which  are  regarded  as  among  the  grandest 
achievements  in  history.  The  secret  of  his  loud  and  earnest 
denunciations  of  vice  and  crime  may  be  read  in  the  condition 
of  society,  which  is  the  amplest  justification  of  his  strongest 
language.  To  aim  at  the  manners  merely  of  such  an  age  would 
have  been  fruitless,  and,  therefore,  John  Wesley  aimed  at  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  and  in  his  earnest  preaching  constantly 
urged  the  necessity  of  an  inward  spiritual  life.  To  his  success 
his  schools  much  helped,  and  he  provided  a very  considerable 
literature,  both  original  and  reprint.  The  Methodist  Book 
Room  in  England  is  one  of  the  residts,  whence  issue  anniTallj’- 
between  four  and  five  million  pubhcations ; another  residt  is 
the  twenty  millions  issued  by  the  various  sections  of  Meth- 
odists in  America.  Sunday-schools,  too,  were  largely  the  result 
of  John  Wesley’s  labors,  for  children  were  taught  by  members 
of  his  Society  years  before  Raikes  collected  them  in  the  parish 
church  of  Gloucester.  These  institutions,  true  safeguards  of 
the  cormtry,  are  strongly  redolent  of  the  benevolent  schemiug 


118 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


of  Wesley.  All  appliances  were  pressed  into  the  service  ; the 
first  “ Bible  Society,”  the  “ London  Missionary  Society,”  and 
the  “ Church  Missionary  Society  ” came  of  Methodism ; also  the 
first  “ Tract  Society,”  seventeen  years  in  advance  of  the  present 
“Beligious  Tract  Society.”  Good,  wholesome,  cheap  school- 
books were  then  scarce,  and  W esley  wrote  a whole  batch  for 
his  own  schools,  while  he  did  the  same  for  his  “preachers” 
and  people  in  his  “ Christian  Library,”  and  other  publications. 
He  had  at  first  some  difiiculty  in  keeping  up  the  moral  tone  at 
Kingswood  school,  but  he  drew  up  rules,  too  strong,  perhaps, 
but  right  in  principle,  which  at  this  day  would  work  wonders 
in  many  a limping  establishment,  where  not  the  teacher  but 
parents  and  children  govern.  Some  of  the  bitterest  wails  of 
families  issue  from  the  follies  which.  W esley  tried  to  correct. 
“ The  children  of  tender  parents,  so-called,”  he  writes,  “ who 
are  indeed  offering  up  their  sons  and  daughters  to  devils,  have 
no  business  here,  [at  Kingswood,]  for  the  rules  will  not  be 
broken  in  favor  of  any  person.”  He  also  started  the  first 
public  medical  dispensary,  and  as  soon  as  Franklin  discovered 
that  electricity  and  lightning  were  identical,  he  set  up  an  elec- 
trical machine  for  the  public  cure  of  diseases,  even  before 
“ wise  men”  had  done  laughing  at  Franklin. 

The  fruits  of  AVesley’s  labors  on  the  social  and  domestic  life 
of  the  people  were  immense,  though  his  own  domestic  rela- 
tions were  most  unfortunate.  Here  was  the  second  of  the 
two  mistakes  in  his  long  life.  Wesley  was  too  much  in 
earnest  to  understand  the  philosophy  and  frivohties  of  court- 
ship, or  he  would  not  have  allowed  either  silly  flirts  or  fiery 
vixens  to  dupe  him.  His  marriage  was  the  great  mistake  and 
cloud  of  his  life.  Ho  man,  however,  could  have  borne  it  with 
more  meekness  and  resignation.  It  was,  indeed,  a thirty  years’ 
gloom,  and  stands  as  an  impressive  warning  against  ill-considered 
and  iU-assorted  marriages.  A good  congenial  wife  is  an  angel 
in  any  man’s  house.  But  Wesley’s  wife,  though  the  widow  of 
a most  respectable  merchant,  was  a scold  and  a termagant,  who 


"Wesley’s  iNFLiiEisrcE. 


119 


did  her  utmost  to  make  the  good  and  great  man  miserable ; an 
iU-bred  and  worse-disposed  virago,  who  purloined  her  husband’s 
letters  from  his  pockets,  interlined  them  to  give  spiritual  ex- 
pressions a bad  meaning,  and  then  gave  them  to  his  enemies  to 
pnbhsh.  She  took  special  care  that  Wesley  had  no  home ; but 
he  took  special  care  that  this  did  not  interfere  with  the  regular 
progress  of  his  labors.  He  made  the  sites  and  scenes  of  his 
spiritual  triumphs  his  home,  his  carriage  his  almost  constant  par- 
lor, and  the  chapels,  churches,  fields  and  lanes  of  the  three  king- 
doms his  temple. 

On  the  vices  of  the  times  W esley  spoke  with  no  uncertain 
sound.  His  pamphlet,  “The  Manners  of  the  Age,”  was  a 
sledge-hammer  aU  round.  The  fashionable,  the  idle,  the  drunk- 
en, the  gluttonous,  the  lewd,  the  licentious,  those  addicted  to 
finery  in  furniture  or  dress,  are  all  unmercifully  battered  with 
the  strokes  of  a giant ; and  in  the  same  vigorous  spirit  he  fer- 
reted out,  denounced,  and  rooted  up  all  traces  of  immorality 
in  his  Societies.  Ho  man  could  hide  his  vices  by  union  with 
the  Methodists  of  John  Wesley.  For  opinions  he  declared  he 
would  expel  none,  so  long  as  they  were  peaceably  held,  and 
here  he  gave  the  widest  latitude  ; but  for  immoralities  he  had 
no  tolerance  after  earnest  warning  and  rebuke.  Incorrigible 
debtors,  drunkards,  the  untruthful,  bribers  and  bribe-takers,  the 
impure,  and  all  who  indulged  in  vicious  practices,  were  allowed 
no  resting-place  with  him.  An  age  like  that  we  have  just  glanced 
at  made  it  impossible  to  keep  the  Societies  irreproachable,  but 
every  visitation  was  celebrated  by  a vigilant  scmtiny,  when  it  was 
perfectly  understood  that  he  meant  what  he  said — he  “ woiild 
mend  or  end  them.”  He  thrust  out  the  immoral  with  a prompt- 
ness that  told  observers,  Christ’s  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world. 
This,  too,  was  an  “ innovation  ” on  church  usage,  and  chapel 
usage  too,  for  discipline  had  well-nigh  ceased  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  virtuous  and  vicious.  This  strict  scrutiny  told  a tale 
on  social  habits  and  usages,  and  on  the  domestic  decencies  and 
comforts  of  families.  Before  his  death  the  brutal  public  games 


120 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


had  miicli  abated,  tens  of  thousands  of  householders  were  raised 
from  the  gutters  of  society  to  comparative  respectability  and 
home  happiness,  and  his  societies  were  known  every-where  as  a 
renovated  and  Grod-fearing  race.  The  theaters,  however,  failed 
to  be  purged  of  their  dirt  and  impurities,  and  there  was  still 
more  than  sufficient  refuse  left  to  support  them  ; for  only  four 
years  before  his  death  W esley  declared  them  “ sinks  of  all  inicp 
uity  and  debauchery.”  As  to  business-accommodation-bills  he 
says  about  the  same  time  : “ I expel  any  one  out  of  Society  (in 
London)  who  has  any  thing  to  do  mth  the  execrable  bill-trade.” 
To  “ Sammy  ” Bradhurn  he  wrote : “ You  must  stop  local 
preachers  who  are  loaded  with  debt.”  “Expel  all  guilty  of 
bribery.”  “ Extirpate  smuggling ; ” “ smuggling  is  robbery ; ” 
“ a smuggler  is  a thief  of  the  first  order,  a pickpocket  of  the 
worst  sort ; ” “ expel  all  who  will  not  leave  off  smuggling.” 

But  Wesley  carried  his  teaching  directly  into  the  homes  of 
the  people,  though  ever  scrupulously  careful  to  avoid  interfer- 
ence with  private  family  affairs,  and  not  to  place  families  at 
variance.  “ Spiritous  liquors,”  he  told  the  people,  “ were  liq- 
uid fire.”  “ They  drive  men  to  hell  like  sheep.”  “ A drunk- 
ard is  worse  than  a beast.”  At  that  time  almost  every  other 
house  in  some  districts  was  a gin-shop.  Idleness  he  denounced 
with  all  the  force  of  his  tongue  and  pen,  and,  when  that  worked 
no  cure,  he  had  recourse  to  expulsion.  Some  preachers  had  be- 
come “ nervous,”  and  contracted  the  capability  of  enduring  a 
good  deal  of  rest.  He  learns  “ they  sometimes  sit  still  a whole 
day ; this  can  never  consist  with  health.  They  are  not  drunk- 
ards, nor  gluttons,  but  they  take  more  food  than  nature  re- 
quires.” The  best  physicians  of  to-day  know  all  about  this 
now,  though  they  rarely  trouble  their  patients  with  the  knowl- 
edge; but  Wesley  knew  it  one  hundred  years  ago.  About 
certain  ridiculous  fineries  in  dress,  which  were  common  even 
among  the  comparatively  indigent,  and  which  he  strings  to- 
gether in  a few  fines,  he  speaks  in  strong  language,  and  finishes 
by  the  exhortation,  “ Throw  them  away ; let  them  drop  with- 


AV  esley’s  Influence. 


121 


out  anotlier  word.”  His  lore  of  cleanliness  was  especially  con- 
spicuous, and  could  n6t  fail  to  influence  all  with  whom  he  had 
to  do.  A lajTuan  may  perhaps  he  allowed  to  say  that  a minis- 
ter, dressed  in  unprofessional  or  slovenly  clothes,  loses  half  his 
due  influence.  Both  Southey  and  Sir  Walter  Scott,  when  hoys, 
appear  to  have  been  forcibly  struck  with  Wesley’s  appearance, 
and  while  the  former  repeated  Wesley’s  anecdotes  more  than 
forty  years  after,  the  latter  declared  that  he  felt  as  if  he  had 
never  lost  the  influence  of  his  blessing,  conferred  by  Wesley  as  he 
stroked  his  hand  over  his  boyish  head.  Here  we  have  a glimpse 
of  the  force  of  the  man’s  character  on  people  not  specially  and 
religiously  influenced.  And  hence  the  invariable  neatness  and 
trimness  of  Wesley,  as  a matter  of  example,  must  have  been  in- 
fluential on  his  own  people.  But  Wesley  did  not  trust  to  ex- 
ample ; he  taught  constantly,  both  by  voice  and  pen,  the  neces- 
sity of  both  inward  and  outward  jjurity.  His  eyes  and  ears 
were  open  to  every  source  of  vice  and  immorality,  which  he 
followed  into  the  homes  and  haunts  of  the  poor.  Besides  his 
influence  on  general  society,  Avhich  was  not  small,  he  changed 
the  whole  habits  and  deportment  of  his  converts.  Of  all  the 
men  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  was  no  mind  so  generally 
influential  as  Wesley’s ; and  none  before  or  since  has  been  any 
thing  hke  so  successful  in  raising  the  social  and  domestic  con- 
dition of  the  poor. 

But  further,  John  Wesley  stands  pre-eminent  in  the  history 
of  his  country  for  his  skill  and  wisdom  in  the  politics  of  re- 
ligion. With  the  politics  of  the  State  he  meddled  little,  over 
a career  of  sixty-three  busy  years,  yet  sufficient  to  show  that  he 
was  thoroughly  loyal  to  the  House  of  Hanover,  a genuine  and 
enlightened  patriot,  and  withal  a warm  friend  of  the  people.  But 
the  influence  of  his  name  and  teachings  in  this  sphere  has  been 
scarcely  less  beneficent  and  marked  on  the  position  and  charac- 
ter of  his  country.  Hnlike  the  Beformers  of  a previous  age, 
his  controversy  was  not  with  the  State  and  Government,  but  with 
vice  and  irreligion,  because  he  saw  there  the  source  and  fount- 


122  The  Wesley  Memorial  VolujMe. 

ain  of  all  lasefiil  progress.  He  went  in  to  convert  men’s  sonls 
to  tliat  which  was  virtnons  and  pure, 'and  never  fouled  his 
tongue  or  his  pen  with  that  which  was  the  blotch  and  bane  of 
some  previous  reforms — the  temper  and  mntterings  of  incipient 
treason.  Against  “ the  powers  that  be  ” Wesley  had  no  ravings 
and  stormings,  though  he  did  not  close  his  mouth,  or  decline  to 
use  his  pen  against  oppression  and  injustice.  That  passionate 
virulence,  that  venomous  malice,  which  paralyzes  the  head  and 
the  heart,  withers  the  affections  and  destroys  all  patriotic  sym- 
pathies, found  no  place  in  Wesley’s  breast.  He  was  not  to  be 
blinded  by  other  people’s  political  rant  and  rancor.  It  is  true 
Wesley  and  his  men  were  charged  with  “sedition”  and  every 
thing  else  that  was  bad  at  the  time,  and  every  crowd  that  gath- 
ered to  stone  and  worry  the  Methodists  in  their  peaceful  work 
was  foully  laid  on  their  shoulders ; but  this  was  in  default  of  a 
better  cry.  They  simply  went  forth  to  arouse  the  peoj^le  to  a 
sense  of  the  importance  of  spiritual  things,'  and,  as  Hutton 
says,  they  went  “ among  thieves,  prostitutes,  fools,  people  of 
every  class,  some  of  distinction,  a few  of  the  learned,  merchants, 
and  numbers  of  poor  people,  who  had  never  entered  a place  of 
worship — these  assembled  in  crowds  and  became  godly.”  This 
was  sedition  in  the  eyes  of  the  fierce  and  envious,  and  in  a 
printed  sermon  Dr.  Stebbing — who  was  only  one  among  scores 
of  his  class — declared  that  Wesley  “was  gathering  tumultuous 
assemblies,”  and  “ setting  aside  all  authority  and  rule.” 

“ There  is  the  closest  connection,”  said  W esley,  late  in  life, 
“between  my  rehgion  and  political  conduct ; the  self-same 
authority  enjoins  me  to  ‘ fear  God,  and  to  honor  the  king,  ’ ” 
. . . “ It  is  my  rehgion  which  obliges  me  to  put  men  in  mind 
to  be  subject  to  ‘ pi’i^^^ipalities  and  powers.’  Loyalty  is,  with 
me,  an  essential  point  of  religion.”  But  no  man  could  hurry 
Wesley  into  the  fends  and  turmoils  of  political  parties.  Once 
he  joined  the  great  Dr.  Johnson;  and  the  giant  of  literature, 
Tory  though  he  was,  the  pride  and  glory  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  was  proud  of  his  help.  Writing  to  Wesley  he  said. 


Wesley’s  Influence. 


123 


“ That  now,”  with  such  aid,  “ I have  no  reason  to  be  discour- 
aged ; ” and  then,  with  his  own  inimical  classical  expertness,  he 
concludes,  “ The  lecturer  was  surely  in  the  right  who,  though  he 
saw  his  audience  slinking  away,  refused  to  quit  the  chair  while 
Plato  stayed.”  Dr.  Johnson  was  not  the  man  to  bandy  compli- 
ments such  as  this  except  where  they  were  well-deserved.  Had 
Wesley  devoted  himself  to  politics  he  must  have  ranked  among 
the  foremost  statesmen  of  the  age.  Macaulay  well  knew— as 
every  man  of  sense  may  learn,  if  he  will  take  the  trouble — that 
Wesley  had  every  element  necessary  to  a distinguished  political 
position  and  a commanding  statesmanship ; but  he  knew  he 
was  called  to  a higher  statesmanship — one  linked  to  the  skies, 
and  which  would  last  when  that  of  Lord  ISTorth,  Sir  Eobei’t 
Walpole,  and  William  Pitt,  had  decayed  and  grown  obsolete. 
And  we  have  only  to  look  round  us  to  see  that  Wesley  was 
right.  The  State  lost  something  in  losing  the  man  of  strong 
common  sense,  of  quick  mental  vision,  of  logical  acuteness,  of 
unwonted  intellectual  activity,  of  transparent  honesty  of  pur- 
pose, of  manly  seK-confidence,  of  iron  will,  of  robust  physical 
stamina,  of  unrivaled  power  in  disentangling  intricate  compli- 
cations, of  extraordinary  popular  talking  and  reasoning  facul- 
ties, of  aptness  for  minute  details  and  yet  keeping  a firm  grasp 
of  great  principles,  of  persuasive  eloquence  and  masterly  dis- 
cussion, of  command  of  temper  and  tongue  so  necessary  in  im- 
portant political  crises,  and  of  that  indefinable  and  mysterious, 
almost  magnetic  influence,  which  wins  over,  draws,  and  rules 
large  masses  of  people  ; but  the  State  gained  more,  by  Wesley’s 
laying  deep  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  the  foundations  of  good 
government,  and  by  the  social,  mental,  and  moral  regeneration 
he  worked  among  every  class  of  the  community.  To  Wesley’s 
teachings  is  owing,  chiefly,  that  moderation  in  the  aggregate 
pohtics  of  the  English  people  which  has  made  political  anarchy 
and  revolution  forever  impossible.  It  put,  as  between  two 
fiercely  contending  parties,  a moderating  and  modifying  ele- 
ment which,  like  a huge  fly-wheel,  steadied  and  kept  from 


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The  Wesley  Mehoeial  Volume. 


violent  friction  tlie  whole  political  engine,  and  reduced  “ wear 
and  tear”  to  a minimum.  Since  that  day,  discontented  and 
turbulent  extremes  on  one  side  and  the  other  have  been  kept 
in  check.  In  moments  of  excitement  to  this  day,  the  extreme 
votaries  of  both  political  parties  in  the  hour  of  failure  hurl 
their  rebukes  and  revenge  at  the  Methodists,  whose  moderation 
and  wisdom  have  done  more  than  any  thing  else  to  keej)  En- 
gland firm  on  her  legs,  the  admiration,  sometimes  the  envy,  of 
civilized  governments  almost  the  world  over. 

Of  Wesley’s  religious  politics  >it  would  be  vain  to  attempt  any 
thing  like  an  analysis  or  even  a sketch.  Sufiice  it  to  say,  that  the 
same  practical  wisdom  distinguished  his  system  of  Church  gov- 
ernment as  marked  his  State  politics.  With  slight  modification 
it  has  stood  the  test  of  experience,  and  as  yet  shows  no  traces  of 
decay.  In  the  history  of  the  Church  Wesley  stands  first  and 
foremost  as  organizer  of  a Church  mle  which  provides  for  free- 
dom without  license,  discipline  without  laxity  or  undue  severity, 
and  Christian  fellowship  without  servitude ; a system  of  gov- 
ernment which  has  drawn  and  bound  together  multitudes  of 
opposite  tastes,  habits,  and  sympathies,  and  at  the  same  time  so 
effectually  excluded  all  forms  of  immorality  that  it  has  long 
been  a public  surprise  and  shock  when  a Methodist  is  punished 
penally.  By  Wesley  a wide  berth  was  given  to  liberty  as  to 
opinions,  and  many  of  his  more  radical  disciples  might  learn  a 
lesson ; but  he  had  no  liberty  for  sin.  To  the  day  of  his  death 
Charles  Wesley  remained  a “ High ’’-Churchman,  and  refused 
to  be  buried  out  of  ‘‘consecrated  ground.”  John  Wesley,  too, 
in  his  early  years,  was  a “ High  ’’-Churchman  in  name,  but  as 
light  came,  and  as  circumstances  pressed,  he  became  a Dissenter 
in  fact,  and  told  his  friends  in  his  last  hours,  with  his  usual 
simplicity,  to  wrap  his  body  in  woolen  and  place  it  in  the  soil 
at  City  Hoad  Chapel ; ground  now  “ consecrated  ” enough  in 
the  repose  of  the  bones  of  the  man  who  accomplished  more 
Christian  work  than  any  other  laborer  in  the  history  of  the 
Church ; and  mingling  with  a soil  which  deserves  a veneration 


Wesley’s  Influence. 


125 


not  less  devout  than  that  which  holds  the  sacred  ashes  of  the 
great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 

But,  finally  and  briefly,  John  Wesley  is  the  most  illustrious 
example  in  the  history  of  his  country  of  the  certain  success 
which  follows  an  earnest  life  of  honest  labor.  It  is  now  too 
late  to  recount  his  labors,  or  even  to  sketch  an  outhne.  Our 
space  is  gone  before  we  have  touched  the  finest  feature  of  his 
character. 

But  if  Wesley’s  life  was  one  of  unceasing  toil,  it  was  one 
of  unparalleled  success.  His  teachings  as  to  a new  spiritual 
life,  and  the  rules  which  regulate  it,  being  sown  broadcast 
over  the  country  by  an  organized  system  of  perpetual  preach- 
ing, were  backed  by  an  ever-present  example,  careful  pastoral 
oversight,  kindly,  but  if  necessary,  severe  disciphne,  and 
by  the  omnij)otent  power  of  the  printing-press.  The  benef- 
icent labors  of  Whitefield,  of  Berridge,  of  Howell  Harris 
in  Wales,  and  of  other  similar  men — only  snippings  from  the 
original  Wesley  tree — and  their  results,  were  fairly  Meth- 
odistic.  Before  Wesley  had  been  at  his  work  half  his  time,  say 
within  twenty-five  years  after  he  started  for  Savannah,  he  had 
planted  Methodism  in  every  large  town  in  England  and  Ireland, 
and  in  many  a hundred  hamlets  and  villages  ; while  his  teach- 
ing had  ever  been  followed  up  by  church  guidance  and  private 
cormsel  in  families.  In  the  very  middle  of  his  career  he  had 
done,  without  money,  without  patronage,  and  in  the  face  of  the 
most  rancorous  enemies,  what  no  other  man  ever  did  before, 
nor  has  ever  done  since,  coupled  with  his  ceaseless  traveling 
and  preaching.  Thus  early,  while  he  had  above  a quarter  of  a 
century  to  work,  he  had  printed  and  sent  over  the  country  one 
hundred  and  thirty  vigorously  written  pamphlets,  nine  parts  of 
his  “Journal,”  and  nearly  seventy  full  sized  books,  besides 
twelve  volumes  and  thirty  pamphlets  produced  jointly  by  him- 
self and  Charles.  Lord  Holland,  Mr.  Pitt,  Sir  B.  Walpole,  and 
the  whole  bench  of  Bishops  in  at  the  bargain,  could  show  noth- 
ing approaching  such  results ; and  results,  too,  which  were  pat- 


126 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


ent  in  the  improved  social  and  edncational  condition,  and  in 
the  renovated  lives,  of  tens  of  thonsands.  And  what  if  we  look 
at  the  subsequent  growth  of  this  Methodist  power  ? It  roused 
all  the  slumbering  Churches  in  the  land  to  renewed  energy — 
an  energy  which  still  clings  to  them — notably  in  the  Establish- 
ment, where  we  have  seen  ever  since  earnest  labor  and  constant 
success.  But  look  at  the  world  of  Methodism,  with  its  about 
five  millions  in  Church-fellowship,  and  over  twenty  millions 
under  the  sway  of  its  religions  teaching ; and  look  again,  and  see 
it  daily  adding  to  its  victories  and  multiplying  its  conquests. 

When  Wesley  reached  the  last  year  of  his  life,  all  over  the 
Three  Kingdoms  he  saw  the  fruit  of  his  labors,  and  the  sight 
gladdened  his  eyes  and  heart.  His  one  hundred  and  fifteen  cir- 
cuits, two  hundred  and  ninety-four  preachers,  and  seventy-one 
thousand  five  hundred  and  sixty-eight  Church  members,  besides 
seventeen  missionaries  in  foreign  lands,  and  nearly  equal  results 
in  America,  were  enough  to  cheer  his  great  spirit,  and  make 
him  “ thank  Cod  for  his  mercies.”  He  had  not  “ concerted 
the  world,”  but  he  had  made  such  a beginning  as  England  had 
never  witnessed  before.  His  old  enemies  had  nearly  died  out, 
or  had  repented  and  turned  friends.  One  half  the  kingdom 
admired,  and  the  other  revered  him.  The  nobility  now 
thought  it  a privilege  to  hear  him  talk  or  preach.  Tens  of 
thousands  still  rushed  to  his  ministrations,  and  looked  upon 
him  as  the  boast  and  glory  of  England  ; and  thousands  at 
this  day  are  proud  and  glad  that  they  have  seen  and  talked 
with  men  and  women  who  knew  and  conversed  with  the  ven- 
erable apostle  of  Methodism.  The  clergy  every-where  un- 
locked their  church  and  pulpit  doors  to  him,  delighted  with 
his  simple  eloquence  and  saintly  character.  “ The  tide  is 
turned,”  he  wrote ; “ I have  now  more  invitations  to  preach  in 
churches  than  I can  accept.”  When  Dr.  Lowth,  Bishop  of 
London,  would  sit  below  him  at  table  and  Wesley  remonstrated, 
the  Bishop  expressed  a pretty  general  feeling  when  he  said : 
“Mr.  Wesley,  may  I be  found  at  your  feet  in  another  world.” 


Wesley’s  Ineleence.  127 

He  was,  we  say,  an  example  uneqnaled  of  the  certain  success 
which  follows  an  earnest  life  of  honest  labor.  That  is  all. 
Rhetorical  ornament  or  eloquent  peroration  would  only  dim 
the  dignity  and  besmear  the  beauty  of  one  of  the  very  closest 
transcripts  of  the  character  of  Him  who  “ went  about  doing 
good.” 


WESLEY  AND  PEESONAL  EELIGIOUS  EXPE- 

EIENCE. 


OD’S  way  of  making  any  truth  powerful  among  men  has 


vX  always  been  to  translate  it  into  the  vernacrTlar  of  this 
world  by  incarnating  it.  He  puts  it  into  a human  soul,  and 
there  fans  it  into  a steady  flame  whose  glow  kindles  other  souls. 
The  unspoken  language  of  profound  conviction  is  the  one 
language  which  needs  no  interpreter. 

Tliere  is  no  danger  that  Chillingworth’s  grand  postulate  will 
ever  be  forgotten : “ The  Bible,  the  Bible,  the  religion  of 
Protestants.”  But  it  is  not  merely  the  Bible  written  or  printed 
which  is  mighty  for  the  salvation  of  the  world.  Men  may  and 
do  refuse  to  read  this ; and  often  when  they  read  it  they 
get  but  the  faintest  possible  conception,  or  even  an  utter  mis- 
conception, of  its  meaning.  It  is  the  Bible  incarnated,  lived, 
Avrought  into  the  fabric  of  human  souls,  clearly  exj)ounded  and 
brilliantly  illustrated  by  transformed  lives,  which  extends  the 
borders  of  Christ’s  kingdom.  The  epistles  of  Paul  and  Peter 
and  John  are  within  easy  reach  of  many  a hand  that  never 
opens  them,  and  pass  under  many  an  eye  that  never  discerns 
their  glories ; but  no  eye  can  be  utterly  blind  to  the  shining 
characters  with  which  a once  pierced  hand  is  now  perpetually 
tracing  “ living  epistles  ” to  be  “ known  and  read  of  all  men.” 

This  thought  is  in  itself  so  important,  and,  moreover,  is  so 
essential  as  the  very  key  to  the  theme  of  this  dissertation,  that  I 
wish  at  the  outset  to  unfold  it  with  sufficient  fullness  and  par- 
ticularity to  secure  a vivid  impression  of  it  on  the  mind  of 
every  reader.  Of  course  the  supreme  illustration  of  it  is  to  be 
sought  in  the  method  of  the  incomparable  Teacher.  And  how 
did  he  teach?  Hot  chiefly  by  what  he  said  or  did,  but  by 


Personal  Religious  Experience. 


.129 


what  he  was.  I derogate  nothing  from  the  splendor  of  his  say- 
ings, the  divineness  of  his  doings,  or  the  magnihcence  of  his 
miracles,  when  I declare  that  his  chief  teaching  was  Himself. 
He  spoke,  he  did,  more  yet  he  was,  the  Truth.  The  eternal 
TTord — the  revealer  of  God — the  one  only  medium  for  the 
manifestation  of  God  to  the  universe  of  intelligent  creatures — 
'■'■The  TTorcf,  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld 
his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full 
of  grace  and  truth.”  With  his  own  lips  and  by  the  pens  of 
his  amanuenses  he  completed  the  system  of  religious  teaching ; 
and  on  the  last  page  of  the  Apocalypse  he  set  this  solemn  seal : 
“ If  any  man  shall  add  unto  these  things,  God  shall  add  unto 
him  the  plagues  that  are  wiitten  in  this  book : and  if  any  man 
shall  take  away  from  the  words  of  the  book  of  this  prophecy, 
God  shall  take  away  his  part  out  of  the  book  of  life,  and  out 
of  the  holy  city,  and  from  the  things  which  are  written  in  this 
book.” 

Since  that  time  almost  eighteen  hundred  years  of  anxious, 
earnest,  profound  thinking  have  passed  away,  and  no  man 
singly,  nor  all  men  together,  have  added  one  iota  to  the  relig- 
ious teaching  of  Jesus.  And  yet  religious  truth  is  under- 
stood better  to-day  than  in  the  first  century,  or  the  tenth,  or  the 
eighteenth.  How,  if  there  has  been  no  added  revelation  ? 
There  has  been  the  ever-new  exposition  furnished  by  many  a 
fresh  incarnation  of  the  truth.  John  Robinson,  of  Leyden,  in 
his  farewell  to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  in  1620,  nobly  said : “ If 
God  should  reveal  any  thing  to  you  by  any  other  instrument  of 
his,  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  you  were  to  receive  any  truth 
by  my  ministry ; for  I am  very  confldent  the  Lord  hath  more 
truth  and  light  yet  to  break  forth  out  of  his  holy  Word.” 
And  Bishop  Butler,  in  his  immortal  “ Analogy  of  Religion,” 
with  kindred  insight  declared:  “FTor  is  it  at  all  incredi- 
ble that  a book  which  has  been  so  long  in  the  possession  of 
mankind  should  contain  many  truths  as  yet  undiscovered.” 
“ More  truth  and  hght  ? ” WTience  ? “ To  break  forth  out  of 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volusie. 


his  holy  word.”  How  ? He  will  “ reveal  ” it  by  some  “ instru- 
ment of  his.”  “ Truths  as  yet  undiscovered  ? ” Where  ? In 
“ the  book.” 

Such  revelations  God  has  been  pleased  to  make  in  all  the 
Christian  centuries.  His  universal  plan  for  securing  any 
marked  and  substantial  advance  of  Christianity  has  been  to 
incarnate  in  some  one  man  some  grand,  fundamental,  but  neg- 
lected truth.  The  era  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  well 
illustrates  this.  The  world  has  gone  down  into  the  chill  and 
darkness  of  a thousand  years’  night.  God  has  thoughts  of 
mercy  toward  it.  Plow  will  he  bring  in  the  day  ? Ho  new 
Bible  is  given ; there  is  no  new  flight  of  angels ; there  are  no 
new  tongues  of  fire.  A man  is  the  herald  of  the  dawn  ; a man 
with  great  faults,  (else  his  example  had  been  of  less  value  for 
our  encouragement,)  yet  a man  whom  God  taught  that  “ the 
just  shall  live  by  faith,”  and  he  taught  it  to  the  world.  But 
his  great  work  was  incomplete,  and  his  tempest-tossed  soul  had 
hardly  reached  its  happy  home  before  the  Dark  Ages  crept 
back  again.  Ritualism  spread  its  upas  blight ; infidelity  and 
iniquity  were  rampant,  and  even  in  Protestant  England,  at 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  evangelical  Christianity 
had  almost  perished  from  the  earth.  Again  God  honors  his  an- 
cient plan.  Hot  by  angels,  not  by  an  added  revelation,  not  by  a 
new  Pentecost,  does  he  bring  in  that  revival  of  evangelical  doc- 
trine and  life  which  has  had  no  serious  back-set  for  more  than 
a century  and  a third,  and  which,  when  fairly  considered  in  its 
relation  to  the  grand  outmarch  of  modern  evangelistic  effort, 
really  seems  to  be  the  dawn  of  the  Millennium.  God  intro- 
duces this  transcendent  era  by  a man;  a man  born  of  that 
woman  concerning  whom  Adam  Clarke  wrote,  “ Many  daugh- 
ters have  done  virtuously,  but  Susannah  Wesley  has  excelled 
them  all.”  This  man  was  at  once  a Moses,  a Paul,  and  a John. 
He  led  out  God’s  people  from  a worse  than  Egyptian  bondage  ; 
he  preached  the  Gospel  with  surpassing  power  to  men  of  more 
than  Athenian  refinement  and  to  the  most  degraded  outcasts ; 


PeesojS'al  ■ Religious  Experience. 


131 


and  he  was  tlie  verj  apostle  of  love,  for  lie  proclaimed  as  one 
of  the  chief  articles  of  his  creed  that  ‘‘perfect  love”  which 
“ easteth  ont  fear ; ” and  he  was  enabled  so  to  emphasize  God’s 
universal  offer  of  rescue  for  the  ruined,  that  the  world  might 
understand  it  better  than  ever  before.  I soberly  beheve  that 
since  it  was  first  uttered  no  other  man  has  done  so  much  to 
simphfy  and  propagate  that  divinest  of  all  divine  utterances, 
“ God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  beheveth  in  him  should  not  perish,  hut  have 
everlasting  hfe.” 

The  fullest  and  most  severely  dispassionate  of  Mr.  Wesley’s 
biographers,  Mr.  Tyerman,  elaborately  justifies  his  characteriza- 
tion of  Methodism  as  “ the  greatest  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
Chiu’ch  of  Christ ; ” and  says,  “ Let  the  reader  think  of  twelve 
millions  of  people  at  present  enjoying  the  benefits  of  Meth- 
odist instruction;  let  him  think  of  Methodism’s  twenty-one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  seventy-five  ordained  ministers, 
and  of  its  tens  of  thousands  of  lay  preachers  ; let  him  think 
of  the  immense  amount  of  its  church  property,  and  of  the 
well-nigh  countless  number  of  its  church  publications  ; let  him 
thinli  of  the  millions  of  young  people  in  its  schools,  and  of  its 
missionary  agents  almost  all  the  wide  world  over ; let  him  think 
of  its  incalculable  influence  upon  other  Churches,  and  of  the 
unsectarian  institutions  to  which  it  has  given  rise  ; and  then  let 
him  say  whether  the  bold  suggestion  already  made  is  not  strictly 
true,  namely,  that  '•Methodism  is  the  greatest  fact  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  of  Christh  ” 

Now  no  religious  movement  ever  sprang  more  directly  out 
of  the  mind  and  heart  of  its  founder,  and  received  its  mold 
and  inspiration  more  immediately  from  him,  than  Methodism 
from  Wesley.  It  cannot  be  understood  apart  from  him,  nor  he 
apart  from  it.  And  what  is  Methodism  ? This  volume,  which 
presents  W esley  in  well-nigh  every  possible  phase,  abundantly 
answers  that  question ; this  particular  article  has  to  do  with  but 

a single  characteristic  of  Methodism,  and  yet  that  characteristic 
9 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


is  its  grand  formative  principle ; its  centi'al,  uniting,  explaining 
idea,  witliont  wliicli  it  wonld  not  have  been.  Wliat  is  that  idea  ? 
Personal  religious  experience. 

Go  into  any  Methodist  church  (worthy  the  name)  in  Europe, 
Asia,  Africa,  America,  or  any  island  of  the  sea,  (there  are 
twenty  thousand  of  them  in  the  United  States  alone,)  and  listen 
to  the  hymns,  the  readings,  the  prayers,  the  sermons.  Ton 
must  perceive  that,  according  to  the  Methodistic  idea,  rehgion 
is  no  mere  code  of  ethics  or  dogmas,  no  empty  parade  of  cere- 
monies, no  matter  for  rapt  contemplation  and  antinomian  quiet- 
ism ; hut  a deep,  conscious,  all-pervading,  triumphant  spiritual 
life.  A very  simple  teaching  of  the  Holy  Scrijitures,  you  may 
say.  Yes,  hut  vastly  more  simple  because  of  John  Wesley, 
When  he,  a brilliant  young  tutor  in  Lincoln  College,  Oxford, 
was  groping  his  way  to  the  full  hght  of  gosjiel  day,  Methodism 
was  germinating.  He  found  the  light,  and  took  it  into  one  of 
the  clearest  and  strongest  of  intellects,  and  also  into  “one  of 
the  most  marvelous  hearts  which  ever  the  hand  of  the  Creator 
fashioned,  or  the  spirit  of  the  Redeemer  warmed.”  That  mas- 
terful intellect  was  hungrily  striving  after  more  and  more  of 
the  knowledge  of  God,  through  all  the  years  from  its  first  dawn 
in  the  pious  Epworth  rector’s  home  till,  after  eighty-eight 
years,  the  eternal  sun-burst  flashed  upon  it.  But  no  such  mere 
intellectual  seeking,  however  successful,  could  have  produced 
that  immense  result  called  Methodism ; and  so,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-five,  that  great  heart  saw  God,  transmuted  doctrine  into 
life,  and  created  Methodism. 

The  question  is  often  asked.  What  is  the  secret  of  the  power 
of  Methodism  ? That  secret  I conceive  lies  partly  in  its  eccle- 
siastical polity,  more  in  its  doctrinal  teaching,  and  most  of  all 
in  its  religious  experience.  On  the  last  of  these  every  tiling 
turns.  This  it  is  which  gave  birth  to  the  polity  of  Methodism 
and  molded  its  behefs.  Its  doctrinal  system  is  not  new,  though 
the  manner  of  its  proclamation  is.  Erom  the  beginning  until 
now,  the  Methodists,  we  tliink,  have  been  less  inchned  than  any 


Peesoxal  Keligious  Experience. 


133 


otlier  branclL  of  the  Church  to  forget  the  inspired  apostolic 
anathema  against  novelties  in  doctrine,  “ Though  we,  or  an 
angel  in  heaven,  preach  any  other  Gospel  unto  you  than  that  ye 
have  heard,  let  him  be  accursed.” 

In  the  course  of  the  ages  the  old  doctrines  of  the  Bible  had 
been  buried  beneath  the  rubbish  of  forgetfulness  and  sacerdo- 
talism. Wesley  seized  them,  lifted  them  up,  shook  from  them 
the  dust  of  ages  which  covered  them,  rekindled  them  at  the  al- 
tar of  God,  and  then  rushed  forth  and  held  them  up  as  blazing 
torches  before  the  eyes  of  the  people. 

He  taught  that  sin  was  not  a peccadillo,  not  merely  a misfort- 
une, but  a dark,  guilty,  damning  fact.  He  taught  that  salva- 
tion was  not  a proposal  of  help,  restricted  to  a certain  part  of 
the  human  race,  to  be  conferred  at  some  time  no  man  can  tell 
when ; but  to  every  guilty  penitent  it  was  a proclamation  that 
he  might  now  be  saved — fully  saved — saved  to  the  uttermost, 
and  have  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  fact  of  this  sal- 
vation. Ho  wonder  the  people  Hstened,  for  at  that  time  these 
truths  came  with  the  force  of  a new  revelation  to  the  masses 
of  men. 

I think  I shall  not  be  accused  of  an  unjust  criticism  on  our 
Christian  brethren  not  of  our  faith  if  I cite  an  old-fashioned 
Methodist’s  sarcastic  representation  of  the  teaching  prevailing 
in  the  communities  in  which  he  moved.  It  was  this ; “ Re- 
ligion— if  you  seek  it,  you  wont  find  it ; if  you  find  it,  you 
wont  know  it ; if  you  know  it,  you  haven’t  got  it ; if  you  get 
it,  you  can’t  lose  it ; if  you  lose  it,  you  never  had  it.”  The 
iMethodists  reversed  every  clause  of  this  description,  and  made 
it  run : Religion — if  you  seek  it,  you  will  find  it ; if  you  find 
it,  you  will  know  it ; if  you  know  it,  you  have  got  it ; if  you 
get  it,  you  may  lose  it ; if  you  lose  it,  you  must  have  had  it. 

All  the  doctrines  our  fathers  asserted  were  old,  but  they 
made  them  new,  fresh,  vivid,  and  powerful.  This  effect  is  es- 
pecially manifest  in  their  teaching  of  that  most  experimental 
doctrine  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  God  has  given  Method- 


134 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yolhme, 


ism  the  honor  of  making  millions  of  men  understand  it.  This 
doctrine  was  almost  a dead  letter  in  God’s  holy  book  when  John 
Wesley  arose.  Yet  the  teaching  lay  plainly  on  the  very  surface 
of  the  Bible.  Enoch  “had  this  testimony,  that  he  pleased 
God.”  David  had  his  feet  taken  “ out  of  a horrible  pit  and 
out  of  the  miry  clay,”  and  a new  song  put  into  his  mouth. 
Paul  and  Peter  and  John  told  the  same  blessed  story.  Yet  I 
doubt  if  a thousand  men  in  all  England,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  could  have  said  that  they  knew  their  sins  forgiven. 
But  after  fifteen  years’  such  service  of  God  as  has  rarely  been 
equaled,  John  Wesley  became  consciously  a son  of  God.  While 
listening  one  evening,  in  a Moravian  meeting,  to  the  reading 
of  one  of  Luther’s  commentaries,  he  felt  his  heart  “ strangely 
warmed ; ” and  then  he  knew,  and  was  able  to  teach,  the  mean- 
ing of  that  inspired  declaration,  “ The  Spirit  itself  beareth  wit- 
ness with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God.”  The 
glorious  doctrine  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  was  incarnated  in 
him,  and  revealed  through  him  to  millions  more.  In  that  hour 
Methodism  was  born. 

So  manifest  and  vital  is  the  connection  between  Wesley’s 
personal  experience  of  saving  grace  and  the  success  of  the  re- 
ligious movement  he  inaugurated,  that  we  must  trace  the  suc- 
cessive steps  of  that  marvelous  experience.  From  infancy  he 
was  surrounded  by  the  fragrance  of  a most  sincere,  if  some- 
what austere,  ancestral  piety.  He  was  descended  from  a royal 
line  of  God’s  faithful  witnesses.  Daily  prayers  and  Scripture 
readings  were  warp  and  woof  of  his  childliood.  Like  most 
men  who  have  been  both  great  and' good,  he  had  one  of  the 
best  of  mothers,  one  from  whom  he  manifestly  inherited  his 
talent  for  logic  as  well  as  for  saintship.  Who  can  tell  how 
much  the  world  owed  to  that  devout  and  devoted  mother-love 
which  breathed  out  in  this  concluding  sentence  of  many  a let- 
ter, “ Dear  Jaekey,  I beseech  Almighty  God  to  bless  thee ! ” 
He  gave  early  evidence  of  sincere  piety,  and  was  admitted  by 
his  strict  father  to  the  communion  at  the  age  of  eight.  Until 


Persoistal  Religious  Experience. 


135 


lie  left  Liome  to  attend  the  Charter-house  school,  in  his  eleventh 
year,  he  seems  to  have  been  an  unusually  thoughtful  and  con- 
sistent child-Christian.  There,  Mr.  Tyerman  tells  us,  “ he  lost 
the  religion  which  had  marked  his  character  from  the  days  of 
infancy ; ” and  adds : “ Terrible  is  the  danger  when  a child 
leaves  a pious  home  for  a public  school.  John  Wesley  entered 
the  Charter-house  a saint  and  left  it  a sinner.”  He  supports 
this  startling  indictment  by  citing  W esley’s  own  words : “ I 
was  negligent  of  outward  duties,  and  continually  guilty  of  in- 
ward sins.”  But  the  self-accuser  adds  that  these  “ sins  ” were 
“ such  as  are  not  scandalous  in  the  eye  of  the  world ; ” and 
sums  up  this  period  thus : “ However,  I stiE  read  the  Script- 
ures, and  said  my  prayers  morning  and  evening.  And  what  I 
now  hoped  to  be  saved  by  was : 1.  Hot  being  so  bad  as  other 
people ; 2.  Having  stiE  a kindness  for  rehgion  ; and,  3.  Read- 
ing the  Bible,  going  to  church,  and  saying  my  prayers.”  So 
the  “ saint  ” of  ten  had  not  become  so  very  grievous  a “ sinner  ” 
at  seventeen  after  all ; albeit  there  was  a touch  of  Pharisaism 
in  his  piety. 

Mr.  Tyerman  paints  Wesley’s  undergraduate  Efe  at  Oxford 
in  similarly  dark  colors,  thus:  “When  we  say  that  from  the 
age  of  eleven  to  the  age  of  twenty-two  Wesley  made  no  pre- 
tensions to  be  reEgious,  and,  except  on  rare  occasions,  habituaEy 
lived  in  the  practice  of  known  sin,  we  only  say  what  is  equally 
true  of  many  of  the  greatest,  wisest,  and  most  godly  men  that 
have  ever  lived.  The  fact  is  humiliating  and  ought  to  be  de- 
plored, but  why  hide  it  in  one  case  more  than  in  another? 
Wesley  soon  became  one  of  the  holiest  and  most  useful  men 
living ; but  except  the  first  ten  years  of  his  childhood,  he  was, 
up  to  the  age  of  twenty-two,  by  his  own  confession,  an  habitual, 
if  not  profane  and  flagrant  sinner.”  “ He  thoughtlessly  con- 
tracted debts  greater  than  he  had  means  to  pay.”  “ His  letters 
are  without  religious  sentiments,  and  his  life  was  without  a re- 
ligious aim.”  “ He  had  need  to  repent  as  in  dust  and  ashes.” 
The  same  biographer  adds,  however,  within  a dozen  lines, 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


‘‘Wesley  was  far  too  noble  and  too  liigb-principled  to  seek  ad- 
mission into  so  sacred  an  office  as  tbe  Christian  ministry  merely 
to  secure  for  himself  a crust  of  bread.”  Another  very  able 
and  appreciative  student  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  character,  Dr.  Eigg, 
insists  that  these  comments  of  Mr.  Tyerman  are  “ altogether  in 
an  exaggerated  tone  of  austerity ; and  adds,  “ He  writes  as  if 
such  letters  cast  shadows  on  the  character  of  young  Wesley; 
he  declares  quite  unwarrantably  that  from  the  age  of  eleven  to 
twenty-two,  W esley  was  ‘ by  his  own  confession  an  habitual,  if 
not  profane  and  flagrant,  sinner,’  and  that  he  ‘thoughtlessly 
contracted  debts  greater  than  he  had  means  to  pay!’  We 
must  say  that  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  to  justify  such 
language  as  this.  Wesley  seems  always  to  have  kept  at  a re- 
mote distance  from  any  thing  like  ‘ profane  and  flagrant  sin ; ’ 
he  was  ‘ a sinner  ’ as  moral  and  virtuous  youths  are  sinners,  but 
only  so ; and  if  he  could  not  make  ends  meet  on  forty  pounds 
a year,  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  he  ‘thoughtlessly 
contracted  debts.’” 

Mr.  Badcoek,  in  the  “Westminster  Magazine,”  gives  this 
picture  of  Wesley  after  he  had  taken  his  degree  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one : “ He  appeared  the  very  sensible  and  acute  colle- 
gian ; a young  fellow  of  the  finest  classical  taste,  of  the  most 
liberal  and  manly  sentiments.” 

Then  came  one  great  crisis  of  his  life  ; let  me  rather  say,  then 
began  the  one  critical  epoch,  which  lasted  thirteen  years,  and 
terminated  only  when  the  intensely  laborious,  heroically  faith- 
ful, despairingly  weary  “ servant  ” became  consciously  a rejoic- 
ing “son”  of  God.  He  had  finished  his  collegiate  course,  a 
thorough  and  elegant  scholar.  What  should  he  do  ? In  those 
days,  when  so  little  was  thought  about  a divine  call  to  the  minis- 
try, it  would  have  been  strange  if  any  young  man  born,  bred,  and 
educated  as  he  was,  and  with  such  a moral  and  religious  char- 
acter, had  not  at  least  considered  the  question  of  entering  that 
sacred  office.  He  had  such  thoughts,  and  wrote  of  them  to  his 
parents.  They  encouraged  his  incipient  plan,  and  his  mother, 


Personal  Keligious  Experience. 


137 


especially,  gave  him  excellent  advice.  He  immediately  began 
a most  painstaking,  conscientions,  but  blindly  ascetic  prepara- 
tion for  holy  orders.  His  characteristic  account  of  it  runs  thus ; 
“ When  I was  about  twenty-two  my  father  pressed  me  to  enter 
into  holy  orders.  At  the  same  time  the  providence  of  God  direct- 
ing me  to  Kenipis’  ‘ Christian’s  Pattern,’  I began  to  see  that 
true  religion  was  seated  in  the  heart,  and  that  God’s  law  ex- 
tended to  all  our  thoughts  as  well  as  words  and  actions.  I was, 
however,  angry  at  Kempis  for  being  too  strict ; though  I read 
him  only  in  Dean  Stanliope’s  translation.  Yet  I had  frequently 
much  sensible  comfort  in  reading  him,  such  as  I was  an  utter 
stranger  to  before.  Meeting  hkewise  with  a religions  friend, 
which  I never  had  tiU  now,  I began  to  alter  the  whole  form  of 
my  conversation,  and  to  set  in  earnest  upon  a new  life.  I set 
apart  an  hour  or  two  a day  for  religious  retirement ; I commu- 
Diicated  every  week ; I watched  against  all  sin,  whether  in  word 
or  deed ; I began  to  aim  at,  and  to  pray  for,  inward  holiness ; so 
that  now,  doing  so  much  and  living  so  good  a hfe,  I doubted 
not  that  I was  a good  Christian.” 

It  is  well  for  sound  doctrine  and  evangelical  religion  that 
the  seed  of  truth  thus  sown  in  this  eminently  honest,  earnest, 
and  capacious  soul,  did  not  by  a miraculous  operation  of  grace 
burst  forth  into  sudden  flower  and  fruit.  The  slow  germina- 
tion, growth,  unfolding,  and  maturing  of  the  precious  seed  in 
M esley’s  heart  and  life  have  made  the  way  of  salvation  easy  to 
milhons  of  men.  The  divine  method  is  “ first  the  blade,  then 
the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.”  We  are  reminded  of 
Israel’s  forty  years’  schooling  in  the  wilderness ; of  the  apostles 
who  needed,  (for  our  sakes  no  less  that  for  their  own,)  three 
years  under  the  Saviour’s  personal  tuition,  and  ten  days’  wait- 
ing for  the  Pentecost  after  that ; of  Paul’s  theological  course  in 
Arabia,  and  of  Bunyan’s  thrilling  experiences  recorded  in  his 
“ Grace  Abounding  to  the  Chief  of  Sinners.”  God’s  great  sol- 
diers are  wont  to  undergo  a severe  course  of  drill  and  discipline 
before  achieving  those  victories  which  astonish  men  and  angels. 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


In  the  thirteen  years  from  the  age  of  twenty-two  to  that  of 
thirty-five  Wesley  met  and  vanquished,  not  in  bitter  and  be- 
clouding controversy  with  other  men,  but  on  the  battle-field  of 
his  own  soul,  all  the  chief  errors  concerning  the  subject  of  per- 
sonal rehgious  experience.  For  years  of  siich  devout  religious- 
ness and  such  strenuous  activity  in  doing  good  as  have  never 
been  excelled,  he  was  by  turns  a legalist,  a mystic,  an  ascetic, 
and  a ritualist,  with  scarcely  a glimmering  of  that  personal, 
simple,  saving,  triumjDhant  faith  which  these  Egyjjt  and  wil- 
derness years  were  preparing  him  to  teach.  The  downright 
sincerity  and  quaintness  with  which  he  recorded  these  experi- 
ences give  his  Journal  and  his  letters  a romantic  charm. 

The  writers  whom  he  providentially  feU  in  with  at  this 
period,  and  whose  works  had  most  to  do  with  forming  his 
opinions,  partly  by  their  direct  teaching  and  partly  by  the  stern 
antagonism  they  provoked,  were  Thomas  a Kempis,  Jeremy 
Taylor,  and  William  Law.  They  were  always  too  somber  for  him, 
and  he  recoiled  from  the  morbid  tinge  of  their  teachings  ; and 
yet  they  taught  him.  He  promptly  drew  back  from  Jeremy 
Taylor’s  mournful  representations  as  to  the  necessity  of  perpet- 
ual. sorrowful  uncertainty  on  the  point  of  the  penitent  sinner’s 
pardon  and  acceptance.  As  early  as  1725  he  obtained  a clear 
glimpse,  doctrinally,  of  what  he  did  not  fully  know  experiment- 
ally until  1738 — the  feasibility  of  a conscious  salvation.  This 
is  manifest  in  his  wilting  thus  to  his  mother : “ If  we  dwell  in 
Christ,  and  Christ  in  us,  (which  he  vlll  not  do  unless  we  are 
regenerate,)  certainly  we  must  be  sensible  of  it.  If  we  can 
never  have  any  certainty  of  our  being  in  a state  of  salvation, 
good  reason  it  is  that  every  moment  should  be  spent,  not  in 
joy,  but  in  fear  and  trembling ; and  then,  undoubtedly,  we  are  in 
this  life  of  all  men  most  miserable.  God  deliver  us  from  such 
a fearful  expectation  as  this  ! ” 

To  Thomas  a Kempis’  “ Christian’s  Pattern”  and  to  Jeremy 
Taylor’s  “ tioly  Living  and  Dying  ” he  is  manifestly  indebted, 
among  other  things,  for  some  of  the  clearest  early  conceptions 


Personal  Keligious  Experience. 


139 


■which  he  afterward  formulated  in  his  teaching  concerning 
Chi’istian  Perfection.  He  says,  “ I saw  that  simplicity  of  inten- 
tion and  purity  of  affection— one  design  in  all  we  speak  and  do, 
and  one  desire  ruling  all  our  tempers — are  indeed  the  wings  of 
the  soul,  -svithout  which  she  can  never  ascend  to  God.  I sought 
after  this  from  that  hour’.”  The  “ Pattern  ” taught  him  this. 
Anri  after  reading  the  “ Holy  Living  and  Dying ”• — devouring, 
I may  rather  say,  for  no  words  can  well  set  forth  the  intensity 
of  his  hunger  for  the  truth — he  wrote,  “ Instantly  I resolved  to 
dedicate  my  life  to  God — all  my  thoughts  and  words  and  ac- 
tions— being  thoroughly  convinced  there  was  no  medium,  but 
that  every  part  of  my  life  (not  some  only)  must  either  be  a sac- 
rifice to  God  or  myself,  that  is,  the  devil.” 

In  September,  1725,  Wesley  was  ordained  deacon  by  Bishop 
Potter,  whom  he  always  held  in  high  esteem,  calling  him  “ a 
great  and  good  man,”  and  recording  in  a sermon  written  more 
than  half  a century  later  an  ad-Gce  given  him  by  the  Bishop  at 
the  time  of  his  ordination,  and  for  which  he  had  often  thanked 
Almighty  God,  namely,  that  “ if  he  wished  to  be  extensively 
useful,  he  must  not  spend  his  time  in  contending  for  or  against 
things  of  a disputable  nature,  but  in  testif}dng  against  notori- 
ous vice,  and  in  promoting  real  and  essential  holiness.”  In 
March,  1726,  he  was  elected  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College ; and 
eight  months  later  he  was  appointed  Lecturer  and  Moderator 
of  the  classes.  “ Leisure  and  I have  taken  leave  of  one  another,” 
he  -wT’ote ; “ I propose  to  be  busy  as  long  as  I live.”  In  his 
plan  of  study,  which  he  closely  followed,  he  devoted  Mondays 
and  Tuesdays  to  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics ; W ednesdays 
to  logic  and  ethics ; Thursdays  to  Hebrew  and  Arabic ; Fridays 
to  metaphysics  and  natural  philosophy ; Saturdays  to  oratory 
and  poetry  ; and  Sundays  to  divinity ; filling  up  the  interstices 
of  time  with  French,  optics,  and  mathematics.  In  order  to 
prosecute  such  studies  and  to  lead  a life  of  such  strenuous  re- 
ligious devotion,  he  reckoned  minutes  of  time  as  more  precious 
than  rubies.  He  therefore  deliberately  resolved  to  rid  himself 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


of  all  unprofitable  associates.  He  says  : “ Wlien  it  pleased  God 
to  give  me  a settled  resolution  to  be  not  a nominal  but  a real 
Christian,  ...  I resolved  to  have  no  acquaintance  by  chance, 
but  by  choice ; and  to  choose  such  only  as  would  help  me  on 
my  way  to  heaven.” 

The  influence  of  William  Law  upon  him  at  about  this  time 
is  very  manifest.  He  writes  : “I  began  to  see  more  and  more 
the  value  of  time.  I apphed  myself  closer  to  study.  I 
watched  more  carefully  against  actual  sins.  I advised  others 
to  be  religious  according  to  that  scheme  of  religion  by  which  I 
modeled  my  own  life.  But  meeting  now  with  Mr.  Law’s 
‘ Christian  Perfection  ’ and  ‘ Serious  Call,’  although  I was 
much  offended  at  many  parts  of  both,  yet  they  convinced  me 
more  than  ever  of  the  exceeding  height  and  breadth  and  depth 
of  the  law  of  God.  The  light  flowed  in  so  mightily  upon  my 
soul  that  every  thing  appeared  in  a new  view.  I cried  to  God 
for  help ; resolved,  as  I had  never  done  before,  not  to  prolong 
the  time  of  obeying  him.  And  by  my  continued  endeavor  to 
keep  his  whole  law,  inward  and  outward,  to  the  utmost  of  my 
power,  I was  persuaded  that  I should  be  accepted  of  him,  and 
that  I was  even  then  in  a state  of  salvation.” 

His  bondage  to  legalism  is  very  evident.  He  must  grope  in 
the  wilderness  for  weary  years  in  order  that  he  may  be  able  to 
point  out  to  hosts  of  weary  pilgrims  the  short  road  to  Canaan. 
The  austerities,  the  self-denying  charities,  and  the  heroic  home- 
mission  work  of  the  “ Holy  Club,”  of  which  he  was  the  head, 
did  not  satisfy  his  ideal  nor  relieve  his  perturbed  spirit.  Ho 
man  on  earth  studied  religion  more  earnestly,  nor  practiced  it 
more  zealously.  And  at  the  time,  it  seems  never  to  have  oc- 
curred to  him  that  he  was  wearing  a garment  of  self-righteous- 
ness. He  saw  his  error  later,  and  said : “ In  this  refined  way 
of  trusting  to  my  own  works  and  my  own  righteousness,  (so 
zealously  inculcated  by  the  mystic  writers,)  I dragged  on  heav- 
ily, finding  no  comfort  or  help  therein,  till  the  time  of  my  leav- 
ing England.”  He  had  not  forsaken  “ this  refined  way  ” of  try- 


Peesojstal  Eeligious  Expeeience. 


141 


ing  to  establish,  a righteousness  of  his  own  when  he  went  out 
to  Georgia  as  a missionary.  Before  going  he  wrote  a letter 
stating  his  reasons,  the  chief  being  these : “ My  chief  motive  is 
the  hope  of  saving  my  own  soul.  ...  I cannot  hope  to  attain 
the  same  degree  of  holiness  here  which  I may  there.”  But  be- 
sides such  personal  motives,  he  was  moved  by  the  brilliant  pict- 
ure his  fancy  painted  of  the  native  Indians  flocking  round  him  and 
eagerly  accepting  the  Gospel.  When  he  reaches  Georgia,  how- 
ever, we  find  him  not  the  grand  Pauline  missionary,  flying  every- 
where as  the  flaming  herald  of  an  impartial  salvation,  offered 
freely  to  all  by  a God  who  is  “no  respecter  of  persons.”  We 
must  confess  rather  to  beholding  a strait-laced,  exclusive  High- 
Churchman,  who  did  but  httle  good  and  some  manifest  harm, 
and  retired  from  the  scene  of  his  humiliating  defeat  in  two 
years — as  Mr.  Tyerman  styles  him,  “ in  point  of  fact  a Pusey- 
ite,  a hundred  years  before  Dr.  Pusey  flourished.”  Dr.  Eigg 
says,  “ The  resemblance  of  his  practices  to  those  of  modern 
High- Anglicans  is,  in  most  points,  exceedingly  striking.  He  had 
early,  and  also  forenoon,  service  every  day ; he  divided  the  morn- 
ing service,  taking  the  litany  as  a separate  service ; he  inculcated 
fasting  (real  hard  fasting,  his  was)  and  confession  and  weekly 
communion ; he  refused  the  Lord’s  Supper  to  all  who  had  not 
been  episcopally  baj)tized ; he  insisted  on  baptism  by  immer- 
sion ; he  rebaptized  the  children  of  Dissenters  ; and  he  refused 
to  bury  all  who  had  not  received  episcopalian  baptism.”  The 
same  author,  whose  estimate  of  W esley  is  exceedingly  high,  and 
who  zealously,  and,  as  I think,  ably  and  justly  defends  him 
against  some  of  Mr.  Tyerman’s  severe  animadversions,  is  con- 
strained to  characterize  him  at  this  period  as  an  “ ascetic  Bitual- 
ist  of  the  strictest  and  most  advanced  class.” 

Mr.  Wesley’s  own  retrospect  of  his  experiences  in  Georgia  is 
full  of  thrilling  interest.  In  aU  the  range  of  autobiography  I 
know  nothing  more  searching,  instructive,  and  pathetic,  than 
the  merciless  self-dissection  of  this  great,  earnest,  honest  soul. 
The  full  impression  of  it  cannot  be  felt  except  by  approaching 


142 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


it  gradually,  and  then  reading  it  entire  in  a sympathetic  mood. 
The  whole  passage  is  quite  too  long  for  insertion  here ; but  we 
must  solemnly  pause  over  the  most  impressive  paragraphs  : — 

“ It  is  now  two  years  and  almost  four  months  since  I left  my 
native  country  in  order  to  teach  the  Georgian  Indians  the  na- 
ture of  Christianity ; but  what  have  I learned  myself  in  the 
meantime  ? Why,  (what  I least  of  all  expected,)  that  I,  who 
went  out  to  America  to  convei't  others,  was  never  myself  con- 
verted to  God.  ‘ I am  not  mad,’  though  I thus  speak ; but  ‘ I 
speak  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness ; ’ if  haply  some  of 
those  who  still  dream  may  awake,  and  see  that  as  I am  so  are 
they.  . . . 

“ Are  they  read  in  philosophy  ? So  was  I.  In  ancient  or 
modern  tongues  ? So  was  I also.  Are  they  versed  in  the'  science 
of  divinity  ? I,  too,  have  studied  it  many  years.  Can  they  talk 
fluently  upon  spiritual  things  ? The  very  same  could  I do.  Are 
they  plenteous  in  alms  ? Behold,  I gave  all  my  goods  to  feed 
the  poor.  Do  they  give  of  their  labor  as  well  as  of  their 
substance  ? I have  labored  more  abundantly  than  they  all.  Are 
they  willing  to  suifer  for  their  brethren?  I have  thrown  up 
my  friends,  reputation,  ease,  country ; I have  put  my  life  in 
my  hand,  wandering  into  strange  lands ; I have  given  my  body 
to  be  devom’ed  by  the  deep,  parched  up  with  heat,  consumed 
by  toil  and  weariness,  or  whatever  God  should  please  to  bring 
upon  me.  But  does  all  this  (be  it  more  or  less  it  matters  not) 
make  me  acceptable  to  God  ? Does  all  I ever  did  or  can  know, 
say,  give,  do,  or  suffer,  justify  me  in  his  sight?  Yea,  or  the 
constant  use  of  all  the  means  of  grace  ? (which,  nevertheless, 
is  meet,  right,  and  our  bounden  duty.)  Or  that  I know  noth- 
ing of  myself ; that  I am,  as  touching  outward  moral  righteous- 
ness, blameless  ? Or,  to  come  closer  yet,  the  having  a rational 
conviction  of  all  the  truths  of  Christianity  ? Does  all  this  give 
me  a claim  to  the  holy,  heavenly,  divine  character  of  a Chris- 
tian ? By  no  means.  . . . 

“ This,  then,  have  I learned  in  the  ends  of  the  earth,  that  I 


PEESOisrAL  Eeligious  Experience. 


143 


‘ am  fallen  short  of  the  glory  of  God ; ’ that  my  whole  heart  is 
‘ altogether  corrupt  and  abominable ; ’ and  consequently  my 
whole  hfe.  . . . 

“ If  it  be  said  that  I have  faith,  (for  many  such  things  have 
I heard  from  many  miserable  comforters,)  I answer,  So  have 
the  devils — a sort  of  faith ; but  still  they  are  strangers  to  the 
covenants  of  promise.  . . . The  faith  I want  is,  ‘ A sure  trust 
and  confidence  in  God  that  through  the  merits  of  Christ  my 
sins  are  forgiven,  and  I reconciled  to  the  favor  of  God.’  . . . 

“ I went  to  America  to  convert  the  Indians ; but  O ! who 
shall  convert  me  ? Who,  what,  is  he  that  will  deliver  me  from 
this  evil  heart  of  unbelief  ? I have  a fair  summer  religion.  I 
can  talk  well ; nay,  and  believe  myself,  while  no  danger  is  near ; 
but  let  death  look  me  in  the  face,  and  my  spirit  is  troubled. 
ISTor  can  I say,  ‘ To  die  is  gain  ! ’ 

“ I have  a sia  of  fear,  that  when  I’ve  spun 
My  last  thread,  I shall  perish  on  the  shore ! ” 

Surely  the  day  of  full  redemption  draweth  nigh.  Such  a 
spirit  cannot  much  longer  pant  after  God  in  vain.  Six  days 
after  he  landed  in  England,  on  February  7,  1738,  he  fell  in 
with  Bohler.  In  his  Journal  he  notes  this  day  as  ‘‘  a day  much 
to  be  remembered.” 

During  the  three  months  which  elapsed  before  Bdhler’s  de- 
parture to  America,  Wesley  lost  no  opportunity  to  sit  at  the 
feet  of  this  pious  Moravian,  who  was  almost  ten  years  his  junior. 
His  intercourse  with  the  Moravians  on  ship-hoard,  and  with 
Spangenburg  in  Georgia,  had  impressed  his  mind  with  the  con- 
viction that  “ the  secret  of  the  Lord  ” was  with  these  simple- 
hearted  people.  Bohler  told  him  true  faith  in  Christ  was  in- 
separably attended  by  (1)  dominion  over  sin,  and  (2)  constant 
peace,  arising  from  a sense  of  forgiveness.  Wesley  thought 
this  a new  gospel,  and  stoutly  disputed  it.  Bohler  said,  “ Mi 
frafer,  mi  frater,  excoquenda  est  ista  tua  philosophia ! 
And  “purged  out”  this  “philosophy”  speedily  was.  Before 


144 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Yoleme. 


many  days  Wesley  declared  liimself  “clearly  convinced  of  un- 
belief— of  tlie  want  of  that  faitb  whereby  alone  we  are  saved.” 
Bnt  lest  any  one  should  put  a meaning  into  these  Avords  such 
as  his  maturer  experience  would  not  approve,  let  it  be  remem- 
bered that  his  own  note  at  this  place  in  the  revised  edition  of 
his  early  Journals  is,  “ with  the  full  Christian  salvation.” 

The  legalist  is  now  dead ; the  High-Churchman  must  die  also. 
A month  later,  having  been  “ more  and  more  amazed  ” by  Boh- 
ler’s  “ account  of  the  fruits  of  hving  faith,”  and  having  tested 
this  strange  teaching  by  critically  comparing  it  with  the  Greek 
Testament,  he  writes,  “Being  at  Mr.  Fox’s  Society,  my  heart 
Avas  so  full  that  I could  not  confine  myself  to  the  forms  of 
prayer  that  we  were  accustomed  to  use  there.  Heither  do  I 
purpose  to  be  confined  to  them  any  more,  but  to  pray  indiffer- 
ently with  a form  or  without,  as  I may  find  suitable  to  partic- 
ular occasions.”  Snrely,  “ the  new  AAune  ” was  working  might- 
ily in  “ the  old  bottles.” 

Driven  from  every  other  refuge,  Wesley  now  doubted  about 
salvation  in  the  present  tense.  But  again  his  sagacious  and 
God-taught  teacher  sent  him  to  the  Scriptures  and  to  experi- 
ence. The  now  thoroughly  docile  pupil,  to  his  “ utter  aston- 
ishment, found  scarce  any  instances  there  of  other  than  instanta- 
neous conversions,”  and  Avas  presently  confronted  by  “ several 
living  witnesses.”  “Here  ended  my  disputing,”  he  Avrites  ; “ I 
could  now  only  cry  out,  ‘ Lord,  help  thou  my  unbelief  ? ’ I 
was  now  thoroughly  convinced ; and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  I 
resolved  to  seek  this  faith  unto  the  end.” 

This  diligent  search  continued  another  month,  and  then 
came  the  day  of  all  days  to  this  “ chosen  vessel  of  the  Lord.” 
At  the  mature  age  of  thirty-five,  after  thirteen  intensely  relig- 
ious but  most  unsatisfactory  years,  he  entered  into  the  heaven 
on  earth  of  a conscious  salvation.  “ On  May  24,  1Y38,  at  five 
in  the  morning  he  opened  his  Testament  on  these  words : 

‘ There  are  given  unto  us  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises, 
that  by  these  ye  might  be  partakers  of  the  dmne  nature.’  On 


Persojtal  Eeligious  Expeeience. 


145 


leaving  lome  he  opened  on  the  text,  ‘ Thou  art  not  far  f]-om 
the  Idngdom  of  God.’  In  the  afternoon  he  went  to  St.  Paul’s 
Cathedral,  where  the  anthem  was  fxill  of  comfort.  At  night 
he  went  to  a society-meeting  in  Aldersgate-street,  where  a 
person  read  Luther’s  “ Preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Pomans,” 
in  which  Luther  teaches  what  faith  is,  and  also  that  faith  alone 
jxistifies.  Possessed  of  it,  the  heart  is  “ cheered,  elevated,  ex- 
cited and  transported  with  sweet  affections  toward  God.  Re- 
ceiving the  Holy  Ghost,  through  faith,  the  man  is  renewed 
and  made  spiritual,”  and  he  is  impelled  to  fulfill  the  law  “ by 
the  vital  energy  in  himself.”  While  this  preface  was  being 
read,  Wesley  experienced  an  amazing  change.  He  writes, 
felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed.  I felt  I did  trust  in  Christ, 
Christ  alone,  for  salvation ; and  an  assurance  was  given  me 
that  he  had  taken  away  my  sins,  even  mine,  and  saved  me  from 
the  law  of  sin  and  death ; and  I then  testified  openly  to  all 
there  what  I now  first  felt  in  my  heart.” 

I have  detailed  thus  fully  the  process  of  experience  through 
which  this  pioneer  mind  and  heart  were  divinely  led,  because  I 
believe  the  very  experience  itself  of  J ohn  W esley  is  far  richer 
in  lessons  of  permanent  value  than  any  didactic  statements 
concerning  it  can  be.  Facts  are  God’s  great  teachers. 

But  this  article  would  be  incomplete  without  a rapid  survey 
of  the  chief  channels  through  which  this.hard-won  experience 
of  John  Wesley  has  poured  itself  around  the  globe,  and  es- 
pecially has  richly  fructified  the  religious  life  of  the  two  fore- 
most of  the  nations.  I need  not  dwell  upon  those  published 
works  which  will  ever  hold  the  first  place  among  the  standards 
of  Methodist  doctrine  ; nor  on  his  hymns,  which  still  better  en- 
shrine his  very  heart ; nor  on  the  still  more  precious  sacred 
lyrics  of  the  David  of  modern  psalmody,  his  brother  Charles. 
N or  need  I now  refer  to  the  immense  influence  of  W esley’s  ex- 
perience on  his  preaching  and  on  the  preaching  of  tens  of 
thousands  of  his  successors,  and  indeed  on  very  much  of  the 
teaching  on  the  subject  of  experimental  religion  beyond  the 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


pale  of  Metliodism.  All  these  topics,  so  immediately  germane 
to  mine,  are  amply  treated  elsewhere  in  this  volume. 

My  final  office  is  rather  to  call  attention  to  the  chief  of  the 
means  of  grace  by  which  Methodism  has  always  promoted  per- 
sonal religious  experience — the  love-feast  and  the  class-meeting. 
It  would  be  very  interesting,  if  the  limits  assigned  me  would 
permit  it,  fully  to  trace  the  rise  and  progress,  the  methods  and 
results,  of  these  peculiar  institutions  of  Methodism.  These 
topics  are,  however,  very  familiar,  and  must  now  be  passed  with 
a rapid  glance. 

Methodism,  from  its  very  beginning,  recognized  and  largely 
employed  the  social  principle  as  an  agency  of  grace.  It  is  true 
that  the  chief  of  its  methods  for  doing  this,  the  class-meeting, 
was  no  contrivance  of  Mr.  Wesley’s,  but  a providential  fact. 
He  had  it  before  he  knew  it.  He  was  thinking  of  “ quite  an- 
other thing,”  viz.,  paying  the  debts  of  the  Society  at  Bristol. 
The  proposition  to  raise  a penny  a week  from  each  member 
was  opposed,  as  being  burdensome  to  the  poor.  One  said, 
“ Then  put  eleven  of  the  poorest  with  me ; and  if  they  can 
give  any  thing,  well,  I will  call  on  them  weekly ; and  if  they 
can  give  nothing,  I will  give  for  them  as  well  as  for  myseK ; 
and  each  of  you  call  on  eleven  of  your  neighbors  weekly,  re- 
ceive what  they  give,  and  make  up  what  is  wanting.”  It  was 
done ; this  purely  financial  plan  could  not  fail,  in  the  care  of 
godly  leaders,  speedily  to  take  on  a spiritual  character  also. 
Wesley’s  quick  discernment  saw  the  jewels  God  had  thrown 
into  his  lap  while  he  was  looking  for  pennies,  and  said,  “ It 
struck  me  immediately.  This  is  the  thing,  the  very  thing  we 
have  wanted  so  long.  I called  together  all  the  leaders  of  the 
classes — so  we  used  to  terni  them  and  their  companies — and 
desired  that  each  would  make  a particular  inquiry  into  the 
behavior  of  those  he  saw  weekly.  They  did  so.  Many  disor- 
derly walkers  were  detected.  Some  turned  from  the  evil  of 
their  ways.  Some  were  put  away  from  us.  Many  saw  it  with 
fear,  and  rejoiced  unto  God  with  reverence.”  Soon  after  he 


Peksoistal  Keligioes  Expeeience, 


147 


made  a similar  arrangement  in  London,  and  thus  concluded 
his  account  of  it : “ This  was  the  origin  of  our  classes,  for 
which  I can  never  sufficiently  praise  God  ; the  unspeakable 
usefulness  of  the  institution  having  ever  since  been  more  and 
more  manifest.” 

But  if  the  class-meeting  might  almost  be  termed  a happy 
accident,  not  so  with  "Wesley’s  early  and  careful  recognition  of 
its  chief  underlying  principle,  the  need  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship. Three  years  before  the  first  class-meeting  was  held  he 
had  instituted  society-meetings,  of  which  he  was  the  leader,  and 
which  were  very  like  the  modern  inquiry  meetings.  In  the 
same  spirit  he  revived  the  ancient  agape  in  the  quarterly  love- 
feast,  admission  to  which  could  be  secured  only  by  means  of  a 
ticket  furnished  by  the  pastor. 

These  social  means  of  grace  were  immensely  important  to 
Methodism.  They  were  the  altars  on  which  the  sparks  of 
grace  were  kept  alive,  and  the  glowing  brands  fanned  into  in- 
tenser flame.  It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  Methodism 
would  have  survived  fifty  years,  or  traveled  a hundred  miles  be- 
yond its  birth-place,  without  them.  Methodism  must  “yc*.” 
Its  evangelists  felt  the  burning  inspiration  of  the  Great  Com- 
mission in  their  hearts  evermore.  But  they  could  not  “go” 
unless  there  were  faithful  men  to  stay  and  keep  the  flock  to- 
gether, and  gather  the  lambs  into  the  fold,  and  go  after  the 
stragglers.  Unless  when  they  returned  they  could  And  that 
they  were  doing  a work  in  its  nature  permanent,  they  would 
have  no  heart  to  go  on.  An  itinerant  ministry  must  be  supple- 
mented by  an  abiding  local  sub-pastorate. 

Earnest  Methodists  cannot,  therefore,  observe  the  partial  de- 
cay of  the  distinctively  Methodistic  means  of  grace  without 
deep  concern.  God  has  highly  honored  those  means.  They 
have  led  to  the  conversion,  the  reclamation,  and  the  sanctiflea- 
tion  of  myriads  of  souls.  In  times  of  revivals  the  attendance 
on  them  is  much  increased.  Other  denominations  have  found 

great  advantage  in  imitations  of  them  in  their  inquiry  meet- 
10 


148 


Tiie  Wesley  Memoeial  Yoluiie. 


ings,  conference  meetings,  and  experience  meetings.  To  all 
eternity  millions  of  happy  spirits  will  praise  God  because  on 
earth  they  “ spake  often  one  to  another  ” in  Methodist  love- 
feasts  and  class-meetings. 

Many  of  the  most  spiritual  ministers  and  laymen  among  us 
feel  sure  that  they  discern  a close  connection  between  a faith- 
ful attendance  of  these  means  of  grace  and  a distinct,  glowing, 
zealous,  personal  experience ; and  lament  the  too-prevalent,  half- 
and-half,  Church-and-world  style  of  religious  profession,  as  the 
normal  result  of  vacant  class-rooms  and  infrequent  and  sparsely 
attended  love-feasts.  If  a young  convert  is  promptly  assigned 
to  a suitable  class,  in  charge  of  a competent  and  faithful  leader, 
and  will  regularly  attend  it — if  he  finds  himself  encouraged 
weekly  by  glowing  experiences,  fed  by  wise  counsels,  and  in- 
spired by  hearty  singing — there  is  little  probability  that  he  will 
ever  backslide,  and  great  probability  that  if  God  whispers  into 
his  soul  a call  to  the  ministry,  or  to  some  grand  form  of  lay  ac- 
tivity, he  will  hear  and  heed  it. 

It  is  one  glory  of  Methodism  that  it  has  always  been  elastic, 
and  adaptable  to  varied  and  varying  conditions.  It  is  no  re- 
proach to  it  that  its  methods  in  England  and  America  are  dif- 
ferent. The  Methodism  of  a strong  self-supporting  Church  in 
China  in  A.D.  1900  may  differ  widely  in  non-essentials  from  that 
of  its  mother  Church.  The  forms  by  which  the  ends  aimed  at 
in  the  love-feast  and  in  the  class-meeting  shall  be  achieved  may 
be  gradually  changed ; but  those  ends  must  be  achieved  some- 
how, or  the  glory  of  Methodism  will  have  departed,  and  its 
very  name  will  perish  from  the  earth. 


WESLEY  AS  A EEVIVALIST. 


TTTi]  liistory  of  the  Cliurcli  in  its  evolution  throngh  the  ages 


JL  is  a perpetual  attestation  to  the  immensity  of  the  divine 
resources,  not  only  in  ordaining  and  rendering  all  events  sub- 
servient to  its  interests,  but  in  bringing  forward  at  the  appointed 
time  those  types  of  mental  and  moral  manhood,  as  instrumental 
agencies,  which  its  ever-advancing  necessities  may  require.  How 
does  history  authenticate  the  fact  that  God  not  only  appoints 
men  gifted  with  plenary  inspiration,  but  men  uninspired,  to  ac- 
comphsh  his  purpose  in  the  regeneration  of  the  world  ? When 
in  the  post-apostohc  period  it  became  necessary  to  formulate 
and  vindicate  the  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity  against 
the  Gnostic  and  Arian  heresies,  Athanasius  and  Cyril  apj)ear, 
whose  searching  and  subtle  intellects  confronted  the  wondrous 
problems  of  Deity,  and  gave  those  definitions  of  the  person  of 
Christ  and  the  Trinity  which  have  commanded  the  homage  of 
the  universal  Church. 

Early  in  the  history  of  Christian  life  and  worship,  the  de- 
mand arose  for  the  enthusiasm  of  song.  Gifted  with  devout 
and  poetic  skill,  John  of  Damascus,  and  in  later  times  Bernard, 
penned  their  hymns,  while  Gregory,  and  Ambrose  of  Milan, 
in  their  chants  and  cantatas  voiced  these  noble  hymns  in  all 
the  melodies  of  music. 

Long  before  a sacred  literature  was  born,  we  find  that  genius 
consecrated  its  powers,  and  became  an  educating  force  by  which 
the  multitudes  were  famiharized  with  religious  thought.  In 
the  cartoons  and  statuary  of  Raphael  and  Angelo,  incarnated 
in  fresco  and  stone,  there  was  an  ever-open  gospel  in  which 
were  recorded,  in  tinted  and  glowing  colors,  the  leading  events 
of  Christianity.  It  was  in  the  mediaeval  times,  when  the  inner 


150  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 

life  of  tlie  Churcli  had  gone  down  to  zero,  that  the  schools  of 
the  Mystics  were  originated,  and  the  writings  of  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  Mohnos,  and  Fenelon,  attest  how  deep  was  the  spirit- 
ual life  which  God  had  commissioned  them  to  awaken.  At 
length  papacy,  insolent  as  in  the  times  of  Hildebrand,  aveng- 
ing in  its  cnielty  and  abject  in  its  corruption,  became  a burden 
intolerable  to  the  nations,  when  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  Melanch- 
thon  arose,  renounced  the  yoke  of  Rome,  and  led  the  way  in 
the  Reformation  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Rever,  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church,  did  a great  leader  appear  more  essential 
than  in  the  period  immediately  preceding  the  great  Methodist 
revival. 

The  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  one  of  the  darkest 
pages  in  the  religious  history  of  England.  The  Restoration  wit- 
nessed a complete  reaction  from  the  stringencies  which  marked 
society  under  the  puritanic  rule  of  Cromwell.  It  gave  rise  to 
a libertine  literature,  which  found  its  expression  in  the  nameless 
degradation  of  its  dramatists,  and  the  social  corruption  which 
abounded  in  the  higher  life  of  the  nation.  The  infidelity  of 
Lord  Herbert  had  alienated  the  aristocracy  from  the  Church, 
while  that  of  Tyndal  and  Wolston  had  taken  hold  of  the  popu- 
lar mind,  so  that  the  press  abounded  with  the  most  gross  and 
ribald  attacks  on  all  that  was  noble  and  virtuous  in  man.  The 
clergy  of  the  Establishment  were  intolerant  in  the  extreme,  and 
with  but  few  exceptions  made  no  pretensions  to  piety,  and  in 
some  instances  not  even  to  morahty  itself.  The  Ron-conform- 
ist  successors  of  Doddridge  had  inchned  toward  the  principles 
of  Socinianism,  while  the  poorer  classes  were  steeped  in  igno- 
rance, and  had  descended  to  a depravity  well-nigh  beyond  con- 
ception. The  impartial  historian  frankly  admits  that  all  lan- 
guage fails  to  adequately  picture  the  deterioration  which  rested 
alike  on  all  classes,  from  titled  nobles  to  barbarous  toilers  in 
the  grim  and  dismal  mines  of  the  Rorth. 

In  the  obscure  rectory  of  Epworth,  amid  the  marshy  fens  of 
Lincolnshire,  a child  was  born  to  one  of  the  noblest  mothers 


Wesley  as  a Revivalist. 


151 


that  God  ever  gave  to  counsel  and  inspire  a son ; a son  who,  in 
the  allotment  of  Heaven,  was  to  become  the  modem  apostle  to 
revive  the  Church  and  regenerate  society ; a son  whose  line  was 
destined  to  go  out  into  all  the  earth,  and  his  words  unto  the 
ends  of  the  world.  The  name  of  Wesley  will  gather  strength 
with  the  years  ; and  already  he  stands  as  one  of  the  most  prom- 
inent and  remarkable  agents  whom  Providence  has  ever  brought 
forward  for  the  accomplishment  of  a great  work.  Peeble  in 
its  beginnings,  the  ages  only  will  tell  the  grandeur  of  its  con- 
summation. In  briefly  sketching  the  elements  which  conspire 
to  render  Wesley  foremost  of  all  revivalists  whom  the  Church 
has  ever  witnessed,  we  propose  to  notice  the  System  of  Truth 
which  he  accepted,  the  Character  of  his  Spiritual  Life,  the 
Style  of  his  Preaching,  and  his  Power  of  Organization  as  seen 
in  the  means  which  he  employed  to  give  permanence  to  his 
work. 

His  Theology. 

As  a flrst  and  fundamental  point,  we  notice  that  system  of 
theological  truth  wliich  he  formulated  and  has  given  as  a her- 
itage to  the  Church.  It  has  seldom  fallen  to  the  lot  of  man  to 
he  endowed  with  a mind  so  full,  so  many-sided,  as  that  which 
was  intmsted  to  Wesley.  While  it  would  be  untme  to  claim 
for  him  the  inductive  power  of  Bacon  ; or  to  assert  that  he  could 
walk  the  inner  sanctuary  of  the  soul  with  the  stately  tread  of 
Shakspeare,  who  flashed  the  torch-light  of  his  genius  into  the 
remotest  corners  of  the  heart ; or  that  he  could  wield  the  phil- 
osophic argument  of  Butler ; — yet  the  more  profoundly  we 
study  his  natural  endowments  the  more  we  are  impressed  with 
their  remarkable  character.  He  was  gifted  with  a breadth  of 
understanding  and  a logical  acumen  which  enabled  him  to  grasp 
any  subject  wliich  came  within  the  hmits  of  human  thought. 
In  him  there  was  reverence  for  authority,  and  yet  a mental 
daring  which  led  him  into  new  flelds  of  investigation ; an  im- 
partiality which  refused  to  be  biased,  but  calmly  weighed  the 
claims  of  rival  systems.  He  had  a spiritual  insight  which  truly 


152 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yoluiue. 


belongs  to  higher  souls,  by  which  they  discern  the  affinities 
and  relations  of  things  spiritual.  . In  addition  to  these  natural 
endowments,  he  enjoyed  that  wide  scholarship  and  rare  culture 
which  the  then  first  university  in  the  world  could  supply. 
Thus  furnished,  he  early  in  his  career  laid  the  foundations  of 
that  theological  system  which,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  is  at 
once  the  most  comprehensive,  scriptural,  and  best  adapted  for 
evangelistic  work  which  the  schools  have  ever  given  to  the 
Church  ; — a system  which  is  ever-widening  in  its  influence,  mod- 
ifying other  types  of  religious  thought,  and  which  gives  prom- 
ise of  becoming  the  theology  of  the  Church  of  the  future. 
Thus  gifted  by  nature  and  cultured  by  art,  he  seems  to  have 
contemplated  every  system  which  had  been  propounded  to  the 
Church.  Eliminating  what  was  false,  he  retained  what  was 
scriptural,  and  combined  them  with  matchless  skill.  How 
manifestly  does  this  appear!  He  accepted  the  Augustinian 
doctrine  of  sin,  but  rejected  its  theory  of  decrees.  He  accepted 
the  Pelagian  doctrine  of  the  will,  but  repudiated  that  teaching 
which  denied  the  depravity  of  man  and  the  necessity  of  spirit- 
ual aid.  He  accepted  the  spectacular  theory  of  Abelard,  and 
the  substitutional  theory  of  Anselm,  relative  to  the  work  of 
Christ,  but  utterly  rejected  the  rationahsm  of  the  one,  and  the 
commercial  theory  of  the  atonement  of  the  other.  He  ac- 
cepted the  perfectionist,  theory  and  deep  spirituality  taught  by 
Pascal  and  the  Port  Royalists,  but  rejected  their  quietist  teach- 
ings, which  destroy  all  the  benevolent  activities  of  Christian 
life.  He  accepted  the  doctrine  of  universal  redemption  as 
taught  by  the  early  Arminians,  but  was  careful  to  denounce  the 
semi-Pelagian  laxity  which  marked  the  teachings  of  the  later 
schools  of  Remonstrants.  He  joined  with  the  several  Socinian 
schools  in  exalting  the  benevolence  and  mercy  of  God,  but  never 
faltered  in  his  declaration  of  the  perpetuity  of  punishment. 
Magnifying  the  efficiency  of  divine  grace  with  the  most  earnest 
of  Calvinists,  he  at  the  same  time  asserted  that  salvation  was 
dependent  on  the  volitions  of  a will  that  was  radically  free. 


Wesley  as  a Revivalist. 


153 


It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  tbe  influence  of  tlie  theology 
of  Wesley.  If  we  accept  the  terms  employed  in  modern  the- 
ological science,  its  anthropology  confronted  and  modified  to 
an  extent  that  has  been  under-estimated  the  sensuous  philoso- 
phy of  Locke,  which,  running  its  downward  course,  degenerated 
into  the  materialism  of  France,  and  all  the  degradation  of  the 
positive  philosophy  of  Comte.  By  asserting  the  hberty  of 
the  moral  agent,  it  vindicated  the  spiritual  nature  and  essential 
royalty  of  man.  Its  soteriology  modified  and  softened  that 
ultra-Calvinism  which  overlooked  the  necessity  of  personal 
holiness  by  a misconception  of  the  nature  of  Christ’s  atoning 
work  and  the  ofBce  and  work  of  the  Spirit ; while  its  eschatol- 
ogy rejects  the  wild  and  dreamy  vagaries  of  millenarianism, 
and  that  monstrous  assumption  that  untainted  innocency  and 
desperado  villainy  will  be  congregated  forever  in  that  state 
where  retribution  is  unknown.  How  grandly  comprehensive, 
how  profoundly  scriptural,  and  how  intensely  practical  is  this 
system  of  theology!  It  is  pre-eminently  the  theology  of  the 
evangelist  who  seeks  to  revive  and  extend  spiritual  rehgion. 

It  contemplates  man  as  utterly  lost,  and  with  the  knife  of 
the  moral  anatomist  reveals  the  deep  and  festering  depravity 
of  the  human  heart.  Generous  as  God’s  own  sunlight,  it  looks 
every  man  in  the  face  and  says,  ‘‘  Christ  died  for  you.”  Yin- 
dicating  the  reality  of  supernatural  communication  to  the  spirit 
of  man,  it  publishes  the  glad  evangel  that  the  invited  Spirit 
will  throne  himself  as  a witness  of  sonship  and  a comforter 
divine  in  every  willing  heart.  It  holds  out  the  possibilities  of 
a victory  over  the  apostate  nature  by  asserting  a sanctification 
which  is  entire,  and  a perfection  in  love  which  is  not  ultimate 
and  final,  but  progressive  in  its  development  forever.  Such  was 
the  system  of  religious  tnith  with  which  Wesley  started  on  his 
mighty  career  of  evangelistic  labor.  The  world  has  never  seen 
a formula  which  has  more  practically  unfolded  the  spirit  of  the 
Gospel,  and  given  it  an  adaptation  to  the  average  intelligence  of 
man.  Though  scholastic  in  its  origin,  yet  as  he  and  his  coadjutors 


154 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


rang  it  ont  over  the  land,  it  became  a power  imperial  to  sway 
human  hearts  and  sweep  them  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  And 
this  theology,  hecanse  of  its  intense  loyalty  to  the  Scriptures, 
is  gathering  strength  with  the  years.  It  is  molding  the 
method  of  all  Churches,  and  is  the  right  arm  of  power  to  every 
man  who  aspires  to  hft  up  and  save  .the  race.  Its  character  is 
written  on  every  page  of  the  history  of  the  mightiest  revival 
which  the  Church  has  ever  known. 

Its  Spiritual  Life. 

From  the  theology  of  Wesley  we  come  to  a consideration 
of  its  influence  over  his  own  mind  as  seen  in  his  experimental 
life.  We  have  already  referred  to  the  rare  mental  endowments 
with  which  God  had  intrusted  Wesley.  Hot  inferior  were 
those  qualities  which  conspired  to  build  up  that  Christian  man- 
hood which  made  him  preeminent  as  a minister  of  God. 

Foremost  among  those  qualities  was  a will-power  which  would 
have  made  him  eminent  in  any  sphere.  Meteors  flash  and 
darken  again,  but  planets  burn  steadily  in  their  orbits.  Wesley 
swung  the  round  of  his  earthly  orbit  with  unfaltering  purpose 
and  ever-increasing  brilliance.  There  is  an  heroic  grandeur  in 
that  constancy  which  earned  him  directly  forward  in  the  ac- 
complishment of  his  great  life-work.  With  this  power  of  will 
there  was  a native  integrity  and  sympathy  with  the  spiritual 
which  is  constantly  evident  throughout  his  career.  Several 
agencies  conspired  to  fit  him  for  his  great  work.  The  first  was 
a sympathy  with  mediaeval  asceticism.  The  lives  of  Lopez, 
Lawrence,  and  Franqois  Xavier  had  early  arrested  his  atten- 
tion. Accordingly,  we  find  that  the  history  of  the  Oxford 
Methodists  very  clearly  brings  out  the  ascetic  mold  in  which 
the  piety  of  Wesley  was  cast.  The  whole  of  their  life  assumed 
the  form  of  monastic  order.  Their  time  was  divided  by  sea- 
sons of  fasting  and  solitude.  Restrictions  were  placed  upon 
their  social  intercourse,  habits  of  thought,  and  daily  action. 
This  period  was  a sort  of  moral  gymnasium  in  which  his  spirit 


Wesley  as  a Kevivalist. 


155 


was  trained  and  toned,  in  wliich  liis  conscience  was  educated,  and 
in  wliicli  liis  duty  became  tlie  pole-star  of  bis  life.  Like  an- 
other Ignatius  Loyola,  thongli  in  the  spirit  of  a servant  rather 
than  of  a son,  he  was  ready  to  cross  seas  and  continents  at  what 
he  beheved  to  be  the  call  of  duty.  Wesley  never  forgot  the 
moral  discipline  and  advantage  of  this  period  of  his  life.  In- 
deed, he  regretfully  declares  that  an  observance  of  these  rules 
would  have  been  helpful  throughout  his  entire  career.  It  may 
be  safely  doubted  whether  any  man  ever  accomplished  much 
for  God  who  was  not  subjected  to  a like  discipline.  The  lives 
of  Luther,  Spener,  and  Knox  give  marked  indications  of  that 
self-abnegation  which  gave  fiber  and  power  to  their  manhood, 
and,  under  God,  made  them  mighty  for  the  accomphshment  of 
his  purposes. 

But  while  the  ascetic  principles  which  shaped  his  early  re- 
ligious life  induced  a habit  of  introspection  and  developed  a 
certain  thoroiighness  and  depth  in  his  inner  life,  it  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  Wesley  stands  forever  a debtor  to  that  Morav- 
ian type  of  piety  which  so  largely  influenced  the  entire  of  his 
subsequent  career. 

The  distinguishing  attributes  of  Moravian  piety  were  its 
vivid  realization  of  spiritual  truth,  its  demand  for  an  inner  con- 
sciousness of  the  divine  favor  wrought  out  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  its  joyous  aggressiveness,  its  unquestioning  faith,  and  its 
loyalty  to  the  divine  word.  There  are,  doubtless,  some  feat- 
ures of  Moravian  teaching,  as  propounded  by  Zinzendorf,  that 
must  be  questioned ; but  the  tone  of  piety  is  sweet  and  beauti- 
ful in  the  extreme.  Its  impelling  power  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  a comparatively  feeble  Church  has  lifted  its  banner  in 
mission  stations  over  all  the  earth  to  an  extent  unequaled  by 
any  Church  of  similar  strength.  ISTo  sooner  had  Wesley  come 
under  the  experimental  teachings  of  Moravians  like  Bohler 
than  he  beheld  the  ways  of  God  more  perfectly,  and  from  the 
night  when  he  felt  his  heart  strangely  warmed  while  reading 
on  the  atonement  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  a new  power 


156 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


possessed  him.  Fired  bj  the  enthusiasm  of  divine  love,  he 
henceforth  more  fully  gave  liis  entire  being  to  evangelistic 
labors.  But  the  full  power  of  Wesley’s  spiritual  life  stands 
inseparably  connected  with  his  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christian  Perfection.  In  his  “Plain  Account”  of  this  doc- 
trine we  find  that  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  spiritual  life 
his  mind  had  been  divinely  drawn  in  this  direction.  Thomas 
a Kempis’  “Imitation  of  Christ”  and  Jeremy  TayloFs  “Holy 
Living  ” first  kindled  aspirations  for  this  grace. 

Evidence  of  his  early  soul-yearnings  is  found  in  the  fact  that, 
when  at  Savannah,  he  penned  the  lines, 

“Is  there  a thing  beneath  the  sun, 

That  strives  with  thee  my  heart  to  share  ? 

Ah,  tear  it  thence,  and  reign  alone. 

The  Lord  of  every  motion  there.” 

And  on  his  return  voyage  he  wrote  : — 

“ 0 grant  that  nothing  in  my  soul 

May  dwell,  but  thy  pure  love  alone  1 
O may  thy  love  possess  me  whole. 

My  joy,  my  treasure,  and  my  crown: 

Strange  flames  far  from  my  heart  remove; 

My  every  act,  word,  thought,  be  love  ! ” 

If  there  be  one  master-passion  which  above  all  others  ab- 
sorbed the  soul  of  W esley,  it  was  his  intense  admiration  of  the 
exquisite  beauty  of  holiness  which  permeates  and  robes  the 
character  with  the  radiance  of  heaven.  His  ever-abiding  de- 
sire was,  that  it  should  crown  his  own  life  and  constitute  the 
beatitude  of  others.  As  the  mariner’s  needle  points,  to  the 
pole,  so  his  heart  turned  to  those  who  glorified  this  truth. 

The  estimate  which  he  set  u^Don  this  experience  of  entire 
sanctification  is  shown  in  his  repeated  declarations  that  it  con- 
stitutes the  great  power  of  the  Church,  and  that  wherever  it  was 
preached  clearly  and  definitely,  as  a present  experience,  the 
work  of  God  revived.  Wherever  Christians  rose  to  its  attain- 
ment, they  became  invested  with  a new  power,  which  made 


Wesley  as  a Kevivalist. 


157 


them  potential  agents  in  the  work  of  God ; and  he  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  declare,  that  if  this  truth  should  become  obsolete  in  the 
Methodist  Church,  its  glory,  as  a revival  Church,  would  forever 
pass  away.  Holiness  unto  the  Lord  was,  he  declared,  the  great 
dejposihim  intrusted  to  Methodism,  distinguishing  it  from  every 
other  section  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

In  the  three  stages  which  mark  the  spiritual  life  of  Wesley 
there  is  a remarkable  preparation  for  his  great  work  as  the  re- 
vivalist of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  ascetic  period  gave 
him  the  mastery  of  the  human  heart,  and  armed  him  with 
power  to  search  the  conscience.  The  attainment  of  the  Mora- 
vian type  of  piety  led  him  out  in  the  hne  of  immediate  conver- 
sion and  spiritual  attestation  to  the  heart,  while  the  acceptance 
of  Christian  perfection  enabled  him  to  guide  the  Church  into 
that  consecration  which  would  make  its  members  collaborators 
in  the  work  of  spreading  scriptural  hoKness  thi’oughout  the 
land. 

Style  oe  Preaching. 

But  from  his  inner  life  we  may  pass  on  to  notice  that  style 
of  preaching  which  he  employed  in  accomplishing  his  great 
work.  The  history  of  the  pidpit  is  in  a sense  the  history  of 
the  Church,  reflecting,  as  it  does,  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Thus 
in  the  apostolic  times  we  have  the  age  of  direct  statement,  as 
found  in  Justin  Martyr;  the  age  of  allegory,  which  found  its 
exponent  in  Origen ; the  age  of  superstition,  as  expressed 
in  the  Montanists ; the  age  of  ecclesiasticism,  in  Gregory  the 
Great ; the  age  of  doctrine,  in  the  times  of  the  Reformation ; the 
age  of  polemics,  in  the  sixteenth  century ; and  the  age  of  ex- 
position, which  found  its  expression  in  the  great  productions  of 
Owen  and  Howe.  It  was  reserved  for  Wesley  to  inaugurate 
a new  method  of  preaching,  which,  divested  of  scholastic  forms, 
should  at  once  command  the  homage  of  intellect  and  the  heart 
of  untutored  simplicity. 

The  eighteenth  century  has  given  us  only  two  names  illus- 
trious for  pulpit  eloquence:  Wesley  and  Whitefleld.  If  one 


158  The  Wesley  Memorial  VoLmiE, 

was  the  Demosthenes  of  the  age,  the  other  was  the  Seneca. 
The  one  was  hold,  impassioned,  full  of  declamatory  power 
and  emotional  force ; the  other  was  calm,  cultured,  searching, 
clear,  and  powerful  in  appeal.  'While  the  grandeur  of  White- 
field’s  pulpit  eloquence  swayed  for  the  time,  the  convincing 
and  heart-searching  appeals  of  Wesley  left  a more  permanent 
impression  on  the  age.  Stars  were  they  both  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude ; binary  stars,  that  revolve  around  each  other  and  shed 
the  refulgence  of  their  light  on  the  darkness  of  their  times ; 
hut  while  the  luster  of  the  one  is  dimming  with  the  years, 
that  of  the  other  is  ever  increasing  in  the  growing  magnitude 
and  permanence  of  that  work  which  he  began.  It  is  conceded 
by  the  historians  of  Wesley,  that,  while  his  printed  sermons 
indicate  the  theology  of  his  preaching,  they  furnish  hut  an  im- 
perfect conception  of  that  popular  power  which  he  wielded. 
Sir  Walter  Scott  heard  him  in  his  early  life,  and  hears  testimony 
to  his  great  versatility,  employing  argument  and  anecdote,  the 
simplicity  of  conversational  address  and  yet  an  all-pervading 
and  incisive  earnestness  which  was  potent  to  arrest  all  who 
heard  it.  The  preaching  of  Wesley  had  always  for  its  object 
the  accomphshment  of  definite  results.  Kecognizing  man  as 
exposed  to  an  eternal  penalty  on  account  of  sin,  and  yet  uncon- 
scious of  his  peril,  he  proclaimed  the  law  in  all  its  conscience- 
searching significance,  and  uncovered  that  dark  immortality  to 
which  unsaved  men  were  hastening  with  a vividness  and  power 
that  awoke  the  guilty  sinner,  and  prompted  him  to  flee  from 
the  wrath  to  come. 

It  is  a complaint  throughout  the  Churches  that  the  spirit  of 
deep  conviction  and-  thorough  repentance  is  seldom  witnessed 
as  in  the  past.  May  this  not  arise  from  the  want  of  that  tre- 
mendous and  searching  appeal  in  the  modern  pulpit  which 
marked  the  ministry  of  Wesley  and  his  coadjutors?  To  the 
truly  awakened  man  he  brought  the  fullness  of  the  Grospel,  of- 
fered an  immediate  pardon,  and  insisted  upon  the  attainment  of 
a witnessing  Spirit,  as  authenticating  the  reality  of  the  gift 


Wesley  as  a Eevivalist. 


159 


conferred.  Witli  the  sharpness  of  definition  he  kept  ever  reit- 
erating the  privilege  of  sonship,  and  never  ceased  to  urge  on 
those  who  had  received  the  marks  of  sonship  the  necessity  of 
perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 

The  preaching  of  Wesley  presents  a marked  contrast  to  that 
class  who  decry  all  dogmatic  teaching,  and  would  emasculate  the 
Gospel  of  those  great  distinctive  truths  which  constitute  the  hones 
and  sinews  and  fibers  of  our  Christianity.  What  gave  strength 
to  his  teaching  was  the  perpetual  presentation  of  doctrine  in  its 
practical  relation  to  the  experimental  life  of  man.  It  was  thus 
an  educating  force,  and,  being  surcharged  with  that  divine  in- 
fluence which  flowed  out  from  his  personal  consecration  and 
union  with  God,  it  became  mightily  transforming,  making  the 
moral  wilderness  to  rejoice  and  blossom  as  a rose. 

ISTotliing  more  fully  reveals  the  grand  possibilities  which  in- 
here in  man  than  the  magnitude  of  those  forces  which  belong 
to  one  who  is  called,  commissioned,  and  anointed  to  proclaim 
the  Gospel.  We  admire  the  power  and  skill  of  the  artist  who 
evokes  from  the  instniment  of  music  its  many  voices,  weaving 
them  into  harmonies  and  planting  them  in  the  soul  so  that 
they  five  in  the  memory  along  the  years ; but  what  is  this  to 
the  achievement  of  the  preacher  who  wakes  the  silent  souls  of 
thousands  into  melodies  divine,  and  sends  them  singing  through  * 
the  great  forever,  waking  in  turn  music  in  other  hearts  as  they 
go  to  the  mountains  of  myrrh  and  frankincense,  where  the  day 
breaks  and  the  shadows  flee  away ! Such  was  the  power  of 
Wesley.  From  his  bps  came  words  that  moved  the  spirits  of 
multitudes  toward  God,  and  from  that  center  there  has  gone 
out  a power  which  is  ever  accumulating  with  the  march  of 
time,  working  out  the  regeneration  of  mighty  mihtant  hosts  on 
earth  and  lifting  uncounted  millions  to  the  skies. 


Power  of  Oeqaxization. 

With  a theology  such  as  we  have  described,  wielded  by  an 
agent  so  consecrated,  and  in  a manner  so  adapted  to  produce 


160 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  VoLmiE. 


immediate  results,  we  cannot  wonder  that  over  all  the  land  the 
flame  of  revival  was  kindled  to  an  extent  such  as  the  Church 
had  never  witnessed.  The  success  which  crowned  the  ministry 
of  Wesley  brought  into  play  what  must  he  regarded  as  one  of 
the  crowning  attributes  of  his  character — his  power  of  organ- 
ization. nothing  so  distinguishes  the  essential  greatness  of  a 
man,  and  gives  to  him  such  historic  pre-eminence,  as  the  power 
to  organize.  The  names  that  stand  peerless  in  government,  in 
war,  and  in  the  annals  of  the  Church,  were,  perhaps,  more  dis- 
tinguished in  this  particular  than  in  any  other.  This  talent  for 
government  Wesley  possessed  in  an  extraordinary  degree.  He 
had,  says  Macaulay,  the  genius  of  a Hichelieu  in  directing  and 
controlling  men.  The  first  outcome  of  this  power  was  seen  in 
his  ability  to  read  the  character  of  men,  and  select  his  agents 
to  co-operate  with  him  in  his  work.  It  was  no  ordinary  soul 
that  could  choose  his  agents  from  every  class,  fling  over  them 
the  spell  of  his  inspiration,  and  hold  them  in  line  with  a pre- 
cision that  well-nigh  approached  the  rigidity  of  military  disci- 
phne.  Yet  this  was  the  sublime  spectacle  which  was  witnessed 
in  the  last  century.  Men  throughout  the  isles  and  over  the 
seas  responded  to  his  call,  and  loyally  toiled  at  his  bidding  for 
the  evangelization  of  the  world. 

The  genius  of  Wesley  for  organization  was  further  seen  in 
the  adjustment  to  the  nature  of  man  of  that  economy  which 
he  has  given  to  the  Church.  The  Protestant  Church  had  hith- 
erto resolved  itself  into  two  historic  forms,  the  elaborate  ritual- 
ism of  Episcopacy,  and  the  rigid  baldness  of  Presbyterianism ; 
in  the  one,  the  worship  assumed  a sensuous  form,  appealing  to 
the  senses ; in  the  other,  there  was  a certain  cold  and  unat- 
tractive foiTnalism.  The  quick  intelligence  of  Wesley  at  once 
grasped  the  situation  ; he  recognized  the  power  of  social  influ- 
ence, and,  as  a first  step,  established  those  class-meetings  and 
modern  (igapoB,  or  love-feasts,  which  have  developed  the  spirit 
of  testimony,  and  generated  a warmth  of  Christian  affection 
that  largely  constitutes  the  distinguishing  bond  of  Methodism. 


Wesley  as  a Revivalist. 


161 


With^this  provision  for  Ciiristian  fellowship  he  organized  a 
system  of  accurate  supervision,  by  the  appointment  of  an  order 
of  sub-pastors,  or  leaders,  whose  mission  it  should  be  to  watch 
over  the  individuals  intrusted  to  their  care  to  an  extent  beyond 
the  power  of  the  ordained  pastorate.  The  wisdom  of  this  ap- 
pointment all  must  acknowledge  who  are  familiar  with  the 
tendencies  of  human  nature  to  recede  from  that  position  into 
which  they  have  been  brought  in  times  of  religious  revival,  and 
to  renounce  their  allegiance  to  God.  An  eminent  prelate  has 
well  said,  that  nothing  in  Methodism  more  evinces  the  far-seeing 
sagacity  of  Wesley  than  his  expedient  to  supply  to  his  follow- 
ers at  once  the  opportunities  for  fellowship  with  the  minutest 
oversight  of  individual  interests. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  social  economy  of  Meth- 
odism could  have  been  sustained  without  those  wondrous  spirit- 
ual songs  which  form  the  litui’gy  of  the  Methodist  Church. 
The  hymns  of  the  Wesleys  are  undeniably  the  finest  exponents 
of  every  j)hase  of  inner  life  that  uninspired  genius  has  ever 
given  to  enrich  the  psalmody  of  the  Church.  They  strike  every 
note  in  the  possible  of  human  experience  from  despairing  pen- 
itence up  to  ecstatic  assurance,  from  tremulous  doubt  to  an  ex- 
ultant faith  that  smiles  serenely  amid  the  wreck  of  earthly 
hopes,  and  sings  its  jubilate  in  anticipation  of  the  coming  in- 
heritance. The  hymns  of  the  Wesleys  have  shaped  the  exper- 
imental fife  of  the  Church,  they  have  given  it  an  impress  of 
joy,  and  for  the  last  century  have  made  it  the  singing  Church 
of  Christendom,  to  witness  before  the  world  that  Christianity 
is  not  to  walk  the  ages  robed  in  mourning,  but  with  the  light 
of  heaven  sparkling  in  her  eye.  Clad  in  garments  of  praise, 
with  thanksgiving  and  the  voice  of  melody,  she  is  to  testify  that 
“ happy  is  that  people  that  is  in  such  a case ; yea,  happy  is  that 
people  whose  God  is  the  Lord.” 

. Ro  statement  of  Wesley’s  power  to  organize  would  be  com- 
/plete  without  marking  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  aims,  which 
• gave  him  an  elevation  that  seemed  to  overlook  the  ages,  and 


162  Thj:  Wesley  Memoeial  Volujvie. 

anticipate  the  demands  of  an  advancing  civilization.  Long  be- 
fore Methodism  had  bnilt  a school  or  college  Wesley  had  pro- 
vided a series  of  elementary  books  to  aid  his  untutored  converts 
in  the  attainment  of  an  adequate  education.  Recognizing  the 
forces  that  slumber  in  cheap  hterature,  he  let  loose  these  forces 
in  tracts,  pamphlets,  and  magazines,  ere  yet  men  had  dreamed 
of  organizing  tract  societies.  He  thundered  vpith  strong  invec- 
tive against  the  liquor  traffic  a hundred  years  prior  to  the  birth 
of  prohibition,  and  sought  to  educate  his  follo'svers  to  just  con- 
ceptions of  the  pohtical  issues  of  their  times.  Whatever  would 
give  strength,  endurance,  and  beauty  to  the  Church ; whatever 
would  fit  its  members  in  the  highest  and  noblest  sense  to  make 
the  best  of  both  worlds,  this  great  master-builder  pressed  into 
service  and  consecrated  to  God.  Every  type  of  Methodism 
over  all  the  earth  is  at  the  present  instinct  with  the  organizing 
genius  of  Wesley.  This  has  given  to  it  permanence  and  power, 
and  must  project  its  influence  along  the  fine  of  its  entire 
history. 

Manifold  are  the  lessons  which  the  history  of  John  Wesley 
as  a revivalist  suggests.  Let  none  suppose  that  the  highest 
culture  unfits  for  the  revival  work  of  the  Church.  The  finest 
scholarshij)  may  be  associated  with  the  most  enthusiastic  zeal 
for  the  salvation  of  men. 

Let  none  suppose  that  ministerial  power  must  decline  when 
the  freshness  and  buoyancy  of  early  manhood  depart.  With 
advancing  years  the  influence  and  usefulness  of  Wesley’s  min- 
istry increased,  and  the  splendor  of  its  even-tide  far  surpassed 
the  glory  of  its  dawn. 

Whoever  aspires  to  fill  the  horizon  of  this  life  with  highest 
benediction  to  his  race,  and  gather  glory  to  himself  that  shall 
be  enduring  as  the  Eternal,  let  him  emulate  the  spirit  of  Wes- 
ley and  the  grandeur  of  his  consecration. 

Sun  of  the  morning,  that  openest  the  gates  of  the  day,  and 
comes  blushing  o’er  the  land  and  the  sea,  why  marchest  thou 
to  thy  throne  in  the  heavens,  filling  the  firmament  with  splen- 


'Wesley  as  a Eevivalist. 


163 


dor?  Why,  but  to  symbolize  the  coming  glory  of  tbe  spirit- 
ually wise.  “ They  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  firmament.” 

Star  of  the  midnight  hour,  that  has  shone  on  patriarch  and 
prophet,  waking  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  ages  and  gen- 
erations, why  thy  ceaseless  burning  ? Why,  but  to  show  the 
abiding  brilhance  of  the  soul-winner.  “ They  that  turn  many 
to  righteousness  shall  shine  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever.” 


11 


WESLEY  THE  EOHNDEE  OE  METHODISM. 


F OUTSIDER  ! How  may  this  word,  so  human,  he  applied  to 
any  thing  so  divine  as  the  Church  of  God  ? 

Ho  man  nor  set  of  men  can  create  a Christian  Church.  Its 
underlying  principles  and  its  sacraments  are  of  God.  Its  ends, 
its  sanctions,  its  authority  and  its  power,  are  all  divine.  God 
made  the  Church  ; it  is  his. 

But  God  made  men  also,  and  uses  them  as  ministers  in  his 
Church,  and  when  there  is  need,  as  reformers.  This  divine 
institution  has  a providential  relation  to  times  and  places.  Its 
truths  change  not,  but  they  may  be  rescued  from  oblivion  or 
perversion.  Its  ordained  agencies  may  he  conformed  to  new 
conditions  of  operation.  This  adaptation  is  committed  under 
Providence  to  men — to  men  who  have  “understanding  of  the 
times  to  know  what  Israel  ought  to  do.”  These  chosen 
instruments  seldom  discern  the  full  force  of  their  measures. 
They  are  led  by  a way  they  know  not ; “ they  build  wiser 
than  they  know.”  The  providential  man  is  prepared  and  also 
prepared  for.  The  occasion  comes ; he  responds  to  its  de- 
mands and  does  more  than  he  is  aware  of.  History  magnifies 
him  and  posterity  thinks  more  of  him  than  did  his  owa  gen- 
eration. 

Without  irreverence  or  derogating  from  the  honor  of  the 
Head  of  the  Church  this  providential  man  may  be  called  a 
founder.  Such  instruments  has  God  raised  up  all  along  the 
ages.  They  make  eras  in  ecclesiastical  history. 

Martin  Luther  was  a founder.  See  the  Lutheran  Church, 
whose  strength  in  Europe  can  hardly  he  conceived  of  from 
what  we  see  of  it  in  America.  Like  all  providential  work,  the 
moral  forces  put  in  operation  overfiowed  the  limits  of  the 


Wesley  the  Foundee  of  Methodism.  165 

Churcli  founded  by  bim.  Tbe  influence  of  Luther  is  not  to  be 
measui-ed  by  Lutheranism. 

Other  branches  of  the  Church,  though  the  nomenclature 
may  not  point  to  them,  can  be  traced  to  founders.  Knox  and 
his  collaborators  formulated  the  polity  and  creed  of  the  Pres- 
byterians ; Eobinson,  of  the  Congregationalists,  of  whom  the 
Puritans  of  Kew  England  came ; Zinzendorf  and  his  zealous 
company,  of  the  Moravians. 

On  account  of  its  relations  to  the  State  the  Church  of  En- 
gland may  be  traced  to  coordinate  founders,  Henry  YIII.  repre- 
senting the  secular  and  Cranmer  the  spiritual.  Without  these 
two  men,  it  might  be  said  the  Church  of  England  would  not 
have  been  at  all,  or  it  would  have  been  different  from  what  it 
is.  To  an  Anglican  or  American  high  Churchman  who,  in 
ignorance  of  history,  should  taunt  me  because  John  Wesley  was 
the  founder  of  Methodism,  my  answer  would  be  : Considering 
John  Wesley  and  Henry  Tudor  as  providential  instrmnents  in 
founding  Churches,  I prefer  John  to  Henry. 

How  and  then  a great  thinker  arises  who  is  not  an  organizer. 
He  develops  and  deflnes  a system  of  doctrine  negatively,  by 
eliminating  and  rejecting  certain  accepted  opinions ; positively, 
by  bringing  forward  into  clearer  light  and  stronger  position 
certain  other  opinions  logically  related.  But  there  is  not 
formed,  as  there  may  not  be  needed,  any  ecclesiastical  organism 
for  embodying  and  promoting  this  system.  Such  a man  is 
not  the  founder  of  a Chm’ch,  but  of  a school  of  thought  in  the 
Church.  Of  this  kind  were  Augustine,  Calvin,  Arminius,  Ed- 
wards, Hopkins,  and  Kewman. 

Even  the  four  Gospels  bear  the  individual  impress  of  their 
inspired  authors.  The  style  of  the  man  is  seen  and  felt  in  the 
deliverances  of  the  apostle.  So  we  shall  see  in  their  work 
something  of  the  character  of  the  men  who  are  instrumental  in 
shaping  the  outward  form  of  a Church,  and  by  whose  labors 
its  membership  is  built  up.  This  admission  of  the  human 
element  and  influence  is  consistent  with  the  divine  origin  and 


166 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volteme. 


autliority  of  the  Church.  Its  truths  abide,  its  principles  change 
not,  because  they  are  of  God.  But  the  providential  adaptation 
by  which  they  are  brought  to  bear  on  the  world,  in  accordance 
with  providential  circumstances,  these  are  of  human  devising. 
Bible  doctrines  cannot  be  increased  or  diminished;  but  they 
may  be  presented,  and  systematically  arranged,  more  or  less 
clearly  and  consistently.  Be  not  startled,  then,  or  offended  at 
the  use  of  this  word  founder.  Those  who  most  object  to  it, 
as  applied  to  their  branch  of  the  Church,  furnish  in  their 
history  the  strongest  examples  of  its  presence  and  power. 
Laud  founded  high  Churchism ; Pusey,  the  later  and  equally- 
marked  Tractarian  school  in  the  Church  of  England.  To  these 
systems  they  stand  related  as  father  and  child.  The.  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States,  as  founded  by 
Bishop  White,  underwent  a transformation  by  Hobart  and 
those  of  his  following,  even  while  books  and  standards  remained 
the  same. 

One  may  trace  the  hand  of  Hall,  of  Carson,  of  Spurgeon, 
of  Broadus  among  the  Baptists.  Passing  through  the  Annual 
Conferences  governed  by  the  same  book  of  Discipline,  one  may 
discern  the  types  of  influential  men — dead  or  living — impressed 
upon  them.  The  Conferences  are  marked  in  their  individuality 
from  this  source  in  spite  of  conneetionalism.  Strong  men — 
strongly  willing  and  thinking  and  acting — must  be  seen  in 
whatever  they  touch ; they  cannot  help  it.  God  makes  them 
and  has  use  for  them.  We  may  not  glory  in  them,  but  we 
may  magnify  the  grace  of  God  in  them. 

We  accept  the  phrase  “Methodism  and  its  fomidersP 
These  founders  originated  no  new  principles,  but  continued 
and  emphasized  old  ones ; they  discovered  no  new  truths,  but 
rescued  and  stressed  old  ones  that  had  gone  out  of  fashion; 
they  created  no  new  moral  forces,  but,  following  providential 
openings,  they  took  advantage  of  those  that  had  been  unused, 
or  misused,  or  disused. 

In  the  second  quarter  of  the  last  century  appeared  John 


Wesley  the  Foiwdee  of  Methodism.  167 

Wesley  and  Charles  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield  and  John 
Fletcher,  with  a hand  of  men  whose  hearts  God  had  touched. 
They  were  the  founders  of  Methodism,  which  has  come  to  be 
accepted  as  the  religious  movement  of  the  eighteenth  centmy. 
A writer  in  the  North  Americcm  Review^  (January,  1876,) 
presenting  the  religious  history  of  the  United  States  for  the 
one  hundi’ed  years  then  closing,  says  : “ The  rise  of  this  great 
and  influential  body  must  be  viewed  as  the  most  signal  re- 
ligious fact  which  the  past  century  presents.” 

The  four  names  given  show  a remarkable  combination. 
Fletcher  was  the  dialectician ; not  loving  controversy,  but 
doing  it  sweetly  and  sharply  and  wonderfully  well,  and  forging 
weapons  for  the  defense  of  the  Methodist  doctrines  that  have 
won  many  a victory  in  humbler  hands.  Whitefield  was  the 
orator ; he  arrested  and  concihated  public  attention,  gathered 
crowds  that  no  roof  could  shelter,  and  took  to  field-preaching, 
in  which  his  example  was  followed,  for  reaching  the  people. 
Charles  Wesley  furnished  songs,  and  put  the  Methodist  expe- 
rience and  precepts  into  meter.  He  was  the  poet.  Of  these 
several  gifts  John  Wesley  had  a large  share.  He  was  aU  these 
and  more.  He  was  the  organizer,  the  spiritual  governor.  He 
was  the  founder. 


METHODIST  DOCTEINE. 


The  term  Methodism  was,  some  hundred  years  since,  a watch- 
word of  contempt  for  a body  of  fanatics  supposed  to  hold 
some  new  religious  doctrines,  to  profess  some  strange  experi- 
ences, and  to  arrogate  to  themselves  a peculiar  commission  from 
Heaven.  To  many  it  is  a watch- word  of  reproach  still.  But  it 
has,  nevertheless,  rooted  itself  firmly  in  the  nomenclature  of 
the  Christian  Church.  Evangelical  Christendom  generally 
agrees  with  those  who  bear  it  to  accept  the  term  as  a human 
designation  of  a system  of  thought  and  action  which  it  has 
pleased  the  Head  of  the  Church  to  take  into  his  plans  for 
the  spread  of  his  kingdom  in  these  later  days.  Its  history  has 
produced  a very  general  conviction  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Lord  and  Giver  of  life  ecclesiastical,  has  added  this  to  the 
corporate  bodies  of  our  common  Christianity.  Meanwhile,  not 
solicitous  about  the  judgments  of  men,  it  is  commending  itself 
to  God  by  doing  faithfully  the  work  appointed  for  it  in  the 
world.  Its  sound — or  rather,  the  sound  of  the  Gospel  by  its 
lips — has  gone  out  into  all  the  earth.  It  is  slowly  diffusing  its 
leaven  through  almost  every  form  of  corrupt  Christianity ; it  is 
silently  impressing  its  influence,  acknowledged  or  unacknowl- 
edged, upon  the  uncorrupt  Churches  of  Christendom ; while, 
as  an  independent  and  self-contained  organization,  it  is  erecting 
its  firm  superstructure  in  many  lands. 

This  last  fact  implies  that  the  system  has  its  varieties  of  form. 
Methodism  is  a genus  of  many  species.  The  central  term  has 
gathered  round  it  various  adjectives  or  predicates  which  express 
more  or  less  important  differences.  But  the  term  itself  remains 
a bond  of  union  among  all  these ; a bond  which  will  be,  as  it  has 
been  hitherto,  permanent  and  indestructible,  if  the  type  of  doc- 
trine of  which  it  is  the  symbol  shall  be  maintained  in  its  integ- 


Methodist  Docteeste. 


169 


rity.  For,  though  Methodism  began  as  a life,  that  life  was 
quickened  and  nourished  by  its  teaching ; its  teaching  has  sus- 
tained it  in  vigor ; and  to  its  teaching  is  mainly  committed  its 
destiny  in  the  future.  The  object  of  the  following  pages  will 
be  to  indicate  briefly,  hut  sharply,  that  type  of  doctrine.  It 
must  be  premised,  however,  that  there  will  be  no  systematic 
exhibition  of  its  tenets  illustrated  by  definitions,  quotations, 
and  historical  developments  generally.  The  scope  assigned  to 
this  paper  in  the  programme  of  the  present  volume  allows  only 
of  a few  general  remarks. 

The  subject  takes  us  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  great  move- 
ment. There  are  two  errors  which  we  have  at  once  to  con- 
front : that  of  assigning  a doctrinal  origin  to  the  system,  and 
that  of  making  its  origin  entirely  independent  of  doctrine. 

The  founders  of  Methodism — sit  venia  verho — did  not,  like 
the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  find  themselves  face  to 
face  with  a Christianity  penetrated  through  and  through  by 
error.  They  accepted  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the  English 
Church  ; and  the  subscription  both  of  their  hands  and  of  their 
hearts  they  never  revoked.  What  is  more,  they  adhered  to  the 
emphatic  interpretation  of  these  standards  as  contained  in  litur- 
•gical  and  other  formularies.  ETothing  was  further  from  their 
thought  than  to  amend  either  the  one  or  the  other  in  the  dog- 
matic sense.  Though  they  clearly  perceived  that  certain  truths 
and  certain  aspects  of  truth  had  been  kept  too  much  in  the 
background,  and  therefore  gave  them  special  prominence,  they 
never  erected  these  revived  doctrines  into  a new  confession. 
They  did  not  isolate  the  truths  they  so  vehemently  preached ; 
but  preached  them  as  necessary  to  the  integrity  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  The  strength  of  their  incessant  contention  was  this, 
that  men  had  ceased  to  see  and  feel  what  they  nevertheless  pro- 
fessed to  believe.  It  was  a widespread  delusion  concerning  the 
RevivaT in  the  last  century,  and  it  is  not  quite  exploded  in  this 
century,  that  its  promoters  pretended  to  be  the  recipients  and 
organs  of  a new  dispensation ; modern  Montanists,  as  it  were, 


170 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yolhme. 


deeming  themselves  the  special  instruments  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
charged  to  revive  apostolic  doctrines  and  usages  which  had  been 
lost  through  intervening  ages.  Heither  earlier  nor  later  Meth- 
odism has  ever  constructed  a creed  or  confession  of  faith.  It 
never  beheved  that  any  cardinal  doctrine  has  been  lost ; still 
less,  that  its  own  commission  was  to  restore  such  forgotten 
tenets.  Its  modest  and  simple  revivals  of  early  practice  are 
such  as  Christian  communities  in  all  ages  have  felt  it  their  priv- 
ilege to  attempt ; but  these  have  never  touched  the  hem  of  the 
garment  of  Christian  primitive  truth.  To  Sum  up  in  one  word : 
Methodism,  as  the  aggregate  unity  of  many  bodies  of  Christian 
people,  is  not  based  upon  a confession,  essentially  and  at  aU 
points  peculiar  to  itself,  which  all  who  adhere  to  its  organization 
must  hold. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  no  less  an  error  to  disregard  the 
theological  character  which  was  stamped  from  the  very  begin- 
ning on  this  branch  of  the  great  Eevival.  Hever  was  there  a 
work  wrought  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  Christian  Church 
which  was  not  the  result  of  the  enforcement  of  Christian  truth ; 
and  never  was  such  a work  permanent  which  did  not  lay  the 
foundations  of  its  durability  in  more  or  less  systematized  doc- 
trine. How  it  was  one  of  the  pecuharities  of  Methodism  that* 
it  threw  around  all  its  organization,  and  every  department 
of  it,  a doctrinal  defense.  The  discourses  which  produced  so 
wonderful  an  effect  in  every  comer  of  England  were,  as  deliv- 
ered, and  are  now,  as  preserved,  models  of  theological  precision. 
There  is  not  one  of  them  which  does  not  pay  the  utmost  hom- 
age to  dogmatic  truth ; and  it  is  a fact  of  profound  importance 
in  the  history  of  this  community,  that  the  very  sermons  which. 
Tinder  God,  gave  the  movement  its  life,  still  form  the  standard 
of  its  theological  profession.  Ho  more  remarkable  tribute  to 
the  connection  between  ecclesiastical  life  and  ecclesiastical  doc- 
trine can  be  found  in  the  history  of  Christendom.  It  is  cus- 
tomary to  ascribe  the  stability  of  the  new  economy  to  the  won- 
derful organizing  genius  of  its  founder ; it  may  be  questioned 


Methodist  Doctrihe. 


171 


whether  his  zeal  for  solid  dogma  has  not  a right  to  be  included. 
Certain  it  is,  that  early  Methodism  had  a sound  theological  train- 
ing ; theology  preached  in  its  discourses,  sang  in  its  hymns, 
shaped  its  terms  of  communion,  and  presided  in  the  discussions 
of  its  conferences.  Hence  its  stabihty  in  comparison  of  other 
results  of  the  general  awakening.  The  mystical  Pietists  of 
Germany,  quickened  by  the  same  breath,  threw  off,  to  a great 
extent,  the  fetters  of  dogmatic  creed ; they  retired  from  the 
external  Church,  disowned  its  formularies,  gathered  themselves 
within  a garden  doubly  inclosed,  cultivated  the  most  spiritual  and 
unworldly  personal  godliness,  but  made  no  provision  for  perma- 
nence and  for  posterity.  Methodism,  on  the  other  hand,  while 
steadily  aiming  at  the  perfection  of  the  interior  life  kept  a vigi- 
lant eye  on  the  construction  of  its  pecuhar  type  of  theology. 
That  was  always  in  steady  progress.  It  had  not  reached  its 
consummation  when  the  old  Societies  of  the  eighteenth  cent- 
ury were  consohdated  into  the  Church  of  the  nineteenth.  But 
all  the  elements  were  there : some  of  them,  indeed,  indeter- 
minate and  confused ; some  of  them  involving  troublesome  in- 
consistencies ; others  of  them  giving  latitude  for  abiding  differ- 
ences of  opinion ; but  on  the  whole  supplying  the  materials  of 
what  may  now  be  called  a set  type  of  confessional  theology. 

For  that  type  no  name  already  current  can  be  found ; in  de- 
fault of  any  other,  it  must  be  called  the  Methodist  type.  But 
that  term  is  no  sooner  written  than  it  demands  protection.  It  may 
seem  at  once  to  suggest  the  idea  of  an  eclectic  system  of  opin- 
ion. But,  apart  from  the  discredit  into  which  this  word  eclectic 
has  fallen,  whether  in  the  philosophical  or  in  the  theological 
domain,  it  is  not  apphcable  here.  The  staple  and  substance  of 
Methodist  theology  is  essentially  that  of  the  entire  Scripture 
as  interpreted  by  the  catholic  evangehcal  tradition  of  the 
Christian  Church.  It  holds  the  three  Creeds,  the  only  confes- 
sions of  the  Faith  which  ever  professed  to  utter  the  unanimous 
voice  of  the  body  of  Christ  on  earth ; and,  so  far  as  these  three 
Creeds  were  ever  accepted  by  universal  Christendom,  it  accepts 


172 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yolujes. 


them,  with  only  such  reservations  as  do  not  affect  doctrine. 
Among  the  later  confessions — the  badges  of  a di’^dded  Christen- 
dom— it  holds  the  Articles  of  the  Church  from  which  it  sprang : 
holds  them,  that  is,  in  their  purely  doctrinal  statements.  The 
eclectic  hand  has  done  no  more  than  select  for  prominence  such 
views  of  truth  as  have  been  neglected;  never  has  it  culled 
from  this  or  that  Formulary  any  spoil  to  make  its  own.  It  has 
no  more  borrowed  from  the  Remonstrant  Arminians  than  it 
has  borrowed  from  the  Protestant  Lutherans.  It  agrees  with 
both  these  so  far  as  they  express  the  faith  of  the  Hew  Testa- 
ment ; but  no  further.  It  has  had,  indeed,  in  past  times  a con- 
ventional connection  with  the  name  Arminian ; but  its  Arrain- 
ianism  is  simply  the  mind  of  the  Catholic  Church  down  to  the 
time  of  Augustine ; and  with  the  historical  Arminianism  that 
degenerated  in  Holland  it  has  no  affinity.  It  might  be  said, 
with  equal  propriety  or  want  of  propriety,  that  it  has  learned 
some  of  its  lessons  from  Calvinism.  Certainly  it  has  many 
secret  and  blessed  relations  with  that  system ; not  with  its  hard, 
logical,  deductive  semi-fatalism,  over  which  Absolute  Sover- 
eignty reigns  with  such  awful  despotism,  but  with  its  deep  ap- 
preciation of  union  with  Christ,  and  of  the  Christian  privileges 
bound  up  with  that  high  principle. 

But  to  return.  The  simple  fact  is,  that  any  timly  catholic 
confession  of  faith  must  seem  to  be  eclectic : for  there  are 
no  bodies  of  professed  Christians,  even  to  the  outskirts  of 
Christendom,  which  do  not  hold  some  portions  of  the  truth ; 
while  it  may  be  said  that  many  of  them  hold  some  partic- 
ular truth  with  a sharper  and  more  consistent  definition  of 
it  than  others.  But  a really  catholic  system  must  embrace 
all  these  minor  peculiarities ; and  in  proportion  as  it  does  so, 
it  will  seem  to  have  borrowed  them.  In  this  sense,  the  de- 
fenders of  Methodist  theology  admit  that  it  is  eclectic.  They 
claim  to  hold  all  essential  truth ; to  omit  no  articles  but  those 
which  they  consider  erroneous ; and  to  disparage  none  but 
those  which  they  deem  unessential.  This,  of  course,  is  a high 


Methodist  Doctetne, 


173 


pretension,  bnt  it  is  not  a vainglorious  one ; for  surely  it  is  the 
prerog|tive  of  every  Christian  community  to  glory  in  holding 
“the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.”  And  as  it  is  with 
the  doctrines,  so  it  is  with  the  spirit,  of  Methodist  teaching. 
In  this  also  it  is,  after  a fashion,  eclectic,  as  it  sympathizes  with 
those  who  make  it  their  boast  that  they  know  no  other  theology 
than  the  biblical,  and  is  as  biblical  as  they.  It  also  agrees  with 
those  who  think  that  divinity  is  a systematic  science,  to  be 
grounded  and  organized  as  such ; while  with  almost  all  its  heart 
it  joins  the  company  of  Mystics,  whose  supreme  theologian  is 
the  interior  Teacher,  and  who  find  all  truth  in  the  experimental 
vision  and  knowledge  of  God  in  Christ. 

"We  have  to  say  a few  words  upon  certain  peculiarities  in  the 
doctrinal  position  of  Methodism.  But  it  is  a pleasant  preface 
to  dwell  for  a moment  on  the  broad  expanse  of  catholic  evan- 
gehcal  tnith,  concerning  which  it  has  no  peculiarities,  or  no  pe- 
culiarities that  affect  Christian  doctrine.  To  begin  where  all 
things  have  their  beginning,  with  the  being,  triune  essence,  and 
attributes  of  God ; his  relation  to  the  universe  as  its  Creator 
and  providential  Governor ; his  revelation  of  himself  in  nature  : 
this  supreme  truth  it  holds  against  all  atheism,  antitheism, 
pantheism,  and  materialism.  The  unity  of  mankind,  created  in 
the  image  of  God ; fallen  into  guilt  and  depravity  in  Adam ; re- 
stored through  the  intervention  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  offered 
a vicarious  atonement  for  the  whole  race,  and  is  now  carrying 
on  the  holy  warfare  for  man,  and  in  man,  and  with  man,  against 
the  personal  devil  and  his  kingdom  of  darkness : this  it  holds 
against  aU  who  deny  the  incarnation  of  the  divine  Son,  one 
Person  in  two  natures  forever.  The  divinity  and  economical 
offices  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  the 
source  of  all  good  in  man ; the  inspirer  of  all  holy  Scripture  ; 
the  administrator  of  a finished  redemption  to  sinful  men  con- 
vinced by  his  agency  on  their  mindg,  justified  through  faith  in 
the  atonement  which  he  reveals  to  the  heart,  and  sanctified  to 
the  uttermost  by  his  energy  within  the  soul,  operating  through 


174 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


the  means  of  grace  established  in  the  Chnrch  over  which  he 
presides,  and  revealing  its  power  in  all  good  works  ^one  in 
the  imitation  of  Christ : all  this  it  holds  against  the  Pelagian, 
Antinomian,  and  Rationalist  dishonor  to  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  solemnities  of  death,  resurrection,  and  eternal  judgment, 
conducted  by  the  returning  Christ,  and  issuing  in  the  everlast- 
ing severance  between  good  and  evil,  the  evil  being  banished 
from  God’s  presence  forever,  and  the  good  blessed  eternally 
with  the  beatific  vision : all  this,  too,  it  holds  with  fear  and 
trembhng,  but  with  assured  confidence  that  the  Judge  will  vin- 
dicate his  righteousness  forever.  In  this  general  outline  we 
have  all  the  elements  of  the  apostles’  doctrine  and  the  truth  of 
God.  And  with  regard  to  these  substantial  and  eternal  verities, 
the  system  of  doctrine  we  now  consider  is  one  with  all  com- 
murdons  that  may  be  regarded  as  holding  the  Head. 

But  while  it  is  true  that  these  everlasting  verities  can  under- 
go no  change,  they  may  all  of  them  undergo  certain  modifica- 
tions of  statement  in  the  gradual  development  of  confessional 
theology.  It  is  needless  to  ask  why  the  Spirit  of  truth  has 
permitted  this ; we  have  only  to  accept  the  fact  that  this  has 
been  his  will.  In  the  earliegj;  ages  of  the  Church  he  overruled 
the  decisions  of  synods  and  councils  for  the  defense  and  clearer 
manifestation  of  Christian  doctrine.  In  later  times  we  see,  with 
equal  and  even  more  distinctness,  the  operation  of  the  same 
law.  He  has  administered  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
on  the  principle  of  raising  up  distinct  societies  or  denomina- 
tions rivaling  and  emulating  each  other,  rallying  round  their 
respective  expositions  of  the  common  faith,  and  turning  their 
distinct  and  distinctive  charisms  to  the  profit  of  the  universal 
cause.  Por  these  diversities  of  teaching  he  is  to  some  extent 
responsible,  but  not  for  their  mutual  contentions  ; and  he  knows 
how  to  educe,  through  the  process  of  ages,  the  perfect  truth 
from  our  discordant  confessions.  We  must  not  ask  if  he  will 
ever  reduce  them  all  to  harmony ; or  whether,  which  is  more 
probable,  the  Lord’s  personal  coming  shall  supersede  them  aU. 


Methodist  Doctehste. 


175 


Our  business  is  to  guard  well  tbe  deposit  committed  to  us  in 
our  several  commurdons  ; differing  charitably  where  we  differ ; 
seeking  to  give  and  receive  all  the  hght  we  can ; and  waiting 
for  the  coming  day,  which  will  be  a day  of  general  revelation. 

Meanwhile,  let  us  note  a few  of  those  peculiar  aspects  of 
the  several  doctrines  mentioned  above  which  Methodism  hum- 
bly and  reverently,  but  confidently,  regards  as  part  of  its  ap- 
pointed testimony.  The  attempt  to  sketch  these  is  one  of  great 
difficulty,  and  of  all  the  greater  difficulty  because  of  the  brevity 
which  is  necessary.  It  would  not  be  a hopeless  task  to  exhibit 
the  salient  points  of  this  type  of  doctrine  at  length,  and  with 
abundant  use  of  the  ample  material  which  a century  has  pro- 
vided. Such  a task  must  one  day  be  accomphshed ; but  it  is 
probably  reserved  for  the  next  generation.  It  will  have  to  lo- 
cate Methodist  doctrine  generally  in  its  true  place  in  confes- 
sional theology  ; to  adjust  it  with  the  other  great  formularies 
of  Christendom ; to  study  its  own  development  from  point  to 
point ; to  reconcile  it  on  some  subjects  with  itself,  and  to  show 
how,  amid  some  vacillations  in  certain  doctrines,  it  has,  never- 
theless, steadily  converged  to  one  issue,  even  as  it  regards  those 
doctrines  themselves ; to  mark  the  deviations  of  which  some 
bodies  bearing  the  generic  name  have  been  guilty,  or  seem  likely 
to  be  so ; to  aim  at  some  such  clear  accentuation  of  contested 
points  as  shall  make  their  common  teaching  more  emphatically 
one  ; and,  finally,  what  is  perhaps  most  important  of  all,  to  in- 
dicate the  specific  effect  which  its  specific  doctrines  have  had 
upon  the  whole  constitution,  agency,  work,  and  successes  of  the 
general  system  called  Methodism.  But  all  this  is  in  the  future. 
"What  the  present  paper  aims  at,  is  only  to  note  a few  peculiar- 
ities, which  the  reader  must  expand  for  himself.  And  it  may 
be  as  well  to  add,  that  the  writer  of  it  is  only  expressing  his 
own  conviction.  He  has,  of  course,  an  objective  standard  be- 
fore him  in  a variety  of  standards.  But  the  subjective  stand- 
ard must  needs  be  applied  even  to  them,  and  accordingly  he 
must  be  responsible  for  his  own  judgments. 


176 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yolesee. 


The  doctrine  of  the  most  Holy  Trinity  might  seem  to  be  one 
in  which  there  is  no  room  for  variety  of  sentiment  among  those 
who  hold  it : that  is,  the  great  bulk  of  the  Christian  world. 
But  that  doctrine  is  deeply  affected  both  in  itseK  and  in  its  re- 
lation to  the  universe  generally,  and  the  economy  of  redemp- 
tion in  particular,  by  the  view  taken  of  the  eternal  Sonship  of 
the  second  Person.  Those  who  would  efface  the  interior  dis- 
tinctions of  generation  and  procession  in  the  Godhead  sur- 
render much  for  which  the  earliest  champions  of  orthodoxy 
fought.  They  take  away  from  the  intercommunion  of  the 
divine  Persons  its  most  impressive  and  affecting  character ; and 
they  go  far  toward  robbing  us  of  the  sacred  mystery  which 
unites  the  Son’s  exinanition  in  heaven  with  his  humiliation  as 
incarnate  on  earth.  How,  we  lay  claim  to  no  peculiar  fidelity 
here,  nor  would  this  subject  be  mentioned,  were  it  not  that 
Methodism  has  had  the  high  honor  of  vindicating  the  eternal 
Sonship  in  a very  marked  manner.  It  has  produced  some  of 
the  ablest  defenses  of  this  truth  known  in  modern  times ; de- 
fenses which  have  shown  how  thoroughly  it  is  interwoven  with 
the  fabric  of  Scripture,  how  vital  it  is  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
incarnation,  and  how  it  may  be  protected  from  any  complicity 
with  subordinational  Arianism.  The  transition  from  this  to 
the  person  of  Christ  in  the  unity  of  his  two  natures  is  obvious. 
And  here  two  remarks  only  need  be  made : first,  that  our  doc- 
trine— we  may  say  henceforward  our  doctrine — is  distinguished 
by  its  careful  abstinence  from  speculation  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  Redeemer’s  self -emptying,  simply  holding  fast  the  immu- 
table truth  that  the  Divine  Son  of  God  could  not  surrender  the 
essence  of  his  divinity ; and,  secondly,  that  in  the  unity  of  his 
Person  he  was  not  only  sinless  but  also  incapable  of  sin.  Any 
one  who  watches  the  tendencies  of  modern  theology,  tenden- 
cies which  betray  themselves  in  almost  all  communities,  and 
watches  them  with  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  importance 
of  the  issues  involved,  wiU  acknowledge  that  this  first  note  of 
honest  glorying  is  not  unjustified. 


Methodist  Doctkihe. 


177 


Turning  to  the  mediatorial  work  which  the  Son  became 
incarnate  to  accomplish,  we  have  to  note  that  the  Methodist 
doctrine  lays  a special  emphasis  on  its  universal  relation  to  the 
race  of  man,  and  deduces  the  consequences  with  a precision 
in  some  respects  pecuhar  to  itseK. 

For  instance,  it  sees  in  this  the  true  explanation  of  the  vica- 
rious or  substitutionary  idea,  which  is  essential  to  sound  evan- 
gelical theology,  but  is  very  difEerently  held  by  different 
schools.  There  are  two  extremes  that  it  seeks  to  avoid  by 
blending  the  truths  perverted  by  opposite  parties.  The  vague 
generality  of  the  old  Arminian  and  G-rotian  theory,  which 
makes  the  atonement  only  a rectoral  expedient  of  the  righteous 
God,  who  sets  forth  his  suffering  Son  before  the  universe  as 
the  proof  that  law  has  been  vindicated  before  grace  begins  to 
receive  transgressors,  was  very  current  in  England  when  Meth- 
odism arose.  This  was  and  still  is  confronted  by  the  vigorous 
doctrine  of  substitution,  which  represents  Christ  to  have  taken 
at  all  points  the  very  place  of  his  elect,  actually  for  them  and 
only  them,  satisfying  the  dreadful  penalty  and  holy  require- 
ments of  the  law.  Throughout  the  whole  current  of  Methodist 
theology  there  runs  a mediating  strain,  which,  however,  it  would 
take  many  pages  to  illustrate.  It  accepts  the  Arminian  view 
that  the  holiness  of  God  is  protected  by  the  atonement ; but  it 
insists  on  bringing  in  here  the  vicarious  idea.  The  sin  of  Adam 
was  expiated  as  representing  the  sin  of  the  race  as  such,  or  of 
human  nature,  or  of  mankind : a realistic  conception  which 
was  not  borrowed  from  philosophic  realism,  and  which  no 
nominalism  can  ever  really  dislodge  from  the  Mew  Testament. 
“ Christ  gave  himself  as  the  mediator  of  God  and  men,  a ran- 
som for  all  before  any  existed;  and  this  oblation  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world  was  to  be  testified  in  due  time,  that 
individual  sinners  might  know  themselves  to  be  members  of  a 
race  vicariously  saved  as  such.”  This  free  paraphrase  of  St. 
Paul’s  last  testimony  does  not  overstrain  its  teaching,  that  the 
virtue  of  the  great  reconciliation  abolished  the  sentence  of 


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death,  in  all  its  meaning,  as  resting  upon  the  posterity  of 
Adam.  In  this  sense  it  was  absolutely  vicarious : the  transac- 
tion in  the  mind  and  purpose  of  the  most  Holy  Trinity  did  not 
take  our  presence  or  concurrence,  only  our  sin,  into  account. 
Therefore  the  Lamb  slain  before  the  foimdation  of  the  world 
was,  as  it  respects  the  race  of  Adam,  an  absolutely  vicarious 
sacrifice.  The  reconciliation  of  God  to  the  world — the  atone- 
ment proper — must  be  carried  up  to  the  awful  sanctuary  of  the 
Divine  Trinitarian  essence.  When  the  atonement  is  translated 
into  time,  set  forth  upon  the  cross,  and  administered  by  the 
Spirit,  the  simple  and  purely  vicarious  idea  is  modified.  Then 
come  in  the  two  other  theories,  which,  as  resting  upon  the 
background  of  the  former,  have  great  value ; but,  as  displacing 
that,  are  utterly  misleading.  God,  as  the  righteous  protector 
of  his  law,  declares  his  justice  while  he  justifies  the  believer, 
and  will  not  justify  him  save  as  he  makes  Christ’s  death  his 
own  through  a faith  which  cries,  “ I am  crucified  with  Christ.” 
And  God,  as  the  Father  of  infinite  love,  commends  his  love  in 
the  sacrificial  gift  of  his  Son,  not  as  if  that  alone  should  move 
us  to  lay  down  our  opposition  to  his  grace,  but  that  the  Spirit, 
teaching  us  how  much  it  cost  the  Father  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  world,  might  shed  abroad  that  love  in  our  individual  hearts, 
and  awaken  in  us  the  love  that  will  imitate  the  Saviour’s  sacri- 
fice and  enter  into  the  fellowship  of  his  death  to  sin.  With 
these  modifications,  as  it  respects  the  individual  believer,  does 
Methodism  hold  fast  the  doctrine  of  a universal  vicarious  satis- 
faction for  the  race.  But  marked  prominence  must  be  given 
to  the  consistency  with  which  the  universal  benefit  of  the 
atonement  has  been  carried  out  in  its  relation  to  original  sin 
and  the  estate  of  the  tmregenerate  world  before  God.  Meth- 
odism not  only  holds  that  the  condemnation  of  the  original  sin 
has  been  reversed ; it  also  holds  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  source 
of  aU  good,  is  given  back  to  mankind  in  his  preliminary  influ- 
ences as  the  Spirit  of  the  coming  Christ,  the  Desired  of  the 
nations.  The  general  truth  that  Christ  is  the  Light  of  the 


Methodist  Doctrine. 


179 


world,  enlightening  every  man  that  cometh  into  it — the  spring 
of  benefits  to  man  that  go  out  to  the  utmost  circumference  of 
his  race — is  held  by  our  theology  in  common  with  many  other 
schools.  But  we  have  our  shades  of  peculiarity  here ; some 
rescuing  the  doctrine  from  unreality,  and  some  protecting  it 
from  latitudinarian  perversion.  With  regard  to  the  former, 
Methodism  affirms  the  restoration  of  the  Spirit  to  have  been 
an  actual  fruit  of  redemption,  mitigating  from  the  very  begin- 
ning the  consequences  of  original  sin,  whether  as  the  curse  of 
the  law  or  as  the  transmission  of  a corrupt  bias.  It  will  not 
tolerate  the  irreverent  distinction  between  common  grace  and 
special  grace ; believing  that  all  grace  was  purchased  at  the  cost 
of  Christ’s  most  precious  blood,  and  is  intended  to  lead  to  sal- 
vation. It  therefore  looks  out  upon  the  court  of  the  Gentiles 
with  catholic  eyes ; not  regarding  it  as  the  sphere  of  absolute 
darkness  and  insensibility  and  death  until  the  Spirit,  adminis- 
tering the  electing  counsel,  kindles  here  and  there  the  spark  of 
life  to  go  out  no  more  forever.  It  believes  in  a preparatory 
grace  reigning  in  aU  the  world ; in  a prevenrent  grace  antici- 
pating the  gospel  in  every  heart ; and  in  both  as  a most  precious 
free  gift  to  mankind,  answering  in  some  sense  to  the  dire  gift 
of  original  sin.  With  regard  to  the  latter,  that  is,  the  latitud- 
inarian perversion,  the  Methodist  doctrine  lays  great  stress  on 
the  insufficiency  of  this  preliminary  grace.  It  does  not  allow, 
with  some,  that  Christ  is  the  seed  of  light  and  life  in  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world,  and  in  this  sense  the  root  and 
center  of  all  human  nature.  He  was,  indeed,  and  is,  the  desire 
of  the  nations  to  whom  he  was  not  revealed ; but  not  a desire 
attained  and  fulfilled  until  he  was  manifested  in  the  flesh. 
How  he  will  deal  with  the  multitudes  of  the  human  race  who 
have  had  only  this  subordinate  and  comparatively  faint  attrac- 
tion— how  and  in  what  ways  unknown  to  us  he  has  responded 
to  it  or  will  respond  to  it — are  questions  which  must  be  left  to 
the  “ Lord  of  the  dead  and  the  living,”  the  Shepherd  of  those 
“other  sheep.”  He  is,  and  will  ever  be,  “Jesus  Christ  the 
12 


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righteous.”  So  with  regard  to  the  secret  influence  that  pre- 
pares for  him  in  every  heart ; which  is  stimulated  by  the  spirit 
of  conviction  into  vehement  penitent  desire.  This  preparation 
of  preliminary  grace  develops  into  much  vigorous  life  ; but  we 
hold  it  not  to  be  regenerate  life  until  the  Son  is  formed  in  the 
heart.  Until  then,  let  the  latitudinarians  say  what  they  will, 
the  word  of  Scripture  holds  its  truth : “ If  any  man  be  in 
Christ  he  is  a new  creature ; ” a word  spoken,  be  it  remem- 
bered, in  connection  with  the  apostle’s  asseifion  of  the  general 
reconciliation  of  God  to  the  world. 

The  blessings  of  the  Christian  covenant,  administered  and  im- 
parted by  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  constitute  the  state  of  grace, 
are  so  simply  set  forth  in  the  Hew  Testament  that  there  is  not 
much  room  for  difference  of  opinion  among  those  whose  views 
of  the  atonement  are  sound.  We  hold  them,  in  common  with 
all  who  hold  the  Head,  to  be  one  great  privilege  flowing  from 
union  with  Christ,  in  whom  we  are  complete;  and  that  this 
great  privilege  of  acceptance  is  administered  both  externally 
and  internally.  But,  as  we  are  dwelling  on  shades  of  differ- 
ence, we  may  observe  that  the  Methodist  theology  lays  more 
stress  than  most  others  upon  the  fact  that  in  every  department 
of  the  common  blessing  there  is  both  an  external  and  an 
internal  administration.  Every  one  of  them  bears  at  once  a 
forensic,  or  imputative,  or  declaratory  character ; while  every 
one  of  them  bears  also  a moral,  or  internal,  or  inwrought 
meaning.  If  there  is  a forensic  justification,  declaring  in  the 
mediatorial  court  where  law  reigns  unto  righteousness,  and  the 
atonement  is  a satisfaction  to  justice ; there  is  also  a principle 
of  obedience  implanted,  through  which  the  righteousness  of  the 
law  is  to  be  fulfilled.  These  are  inseparable  in  time  and  eter- 
nity : none  but  those  who  have  a finished  righteousness  im- 
parted will  be  hereafter  pronounced  righteous  for  Christ’s 
sake ; and  when  righteousness  is  so  complete  as  to  bear  the 
scrutiny  of  Heaven,  it  will  need  to  be  sheltered  from  the  unfor- 
getting law  by  an  imputed  righteousness  and  an  eternal  pardon. 


Methodist  Docteine. 


181 


Eemembering  this  always,  Methodism  holds  very  light  the 
Romanizing  disparagement  of  justification  by  faith  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Calvinistic  disparagement  of  justification  by 
works  on  the  other.  The  righteous  God  is  one,  and  there  is 
but  one  righteousness : that  which  man’s  guilt  needs,  Christ  has 
provided  in  his  atonement ; that  which  God’s  holiness  demands, 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  Christ  will  accomplish.  The  same  may  be 
said  with  regard  to  the  believer’s  relation  to  the  Father  through 
his  union  with  the  incarnate  Son.  It  has  its  external  and  declar- 
atory character  as  an  investiture  with  certain  specific  privileges, 
all  of  which  are  summed  up  in  the  word  “ adoption ; ” but 
these  would  have  no  meaning — they  would,  in  fact,  be  an 
unreality — unless  there  was  inwardly  imparted  also  the  gift  of 
regenerate  life,  which  is  the  Son  of  God  formed  in  the  soul  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Similarly,  with  regard  to  the  blessing  of  sanc- 
tification, which  carries  us  into  the  temple  of  God,  as  justifica- 
tion carries  us  into  the  mediatorial  law  court,  and  regeneration 
into  the  Father’s  house.  Perhaps  our  Methodist  theology  has 
not  been  so  definite  as  to  the  external  and  internal  character 
of  this  third  order  of  evangelical  privilege.  The  term  “ sancti- 
fication ” has  been  generally  referred  to  the  interior  operations 
of  grace,  by  a conventional  consent  that  is  easily  explained. 
But  really,  though  somewhat  informally,  this  distinction  has 
been  observed.  There  is  the  consecration  to  God  on  the  altar, 
which  corresponds  to  justification  at  the  bar:  the  sprinkled 
soul,  with  all  that  it  has  and  is,  is  accepted  of  God,  is  dedicated 
to  him  in  act  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  is  sanctified  to 
Ifis  service.  It  is  regarded  as  set  apart  from  sin  and  the  world, 
though  as  yet  the  severance  may  not  be,  what  it  will  be,  abso- 
lute and  complete.  It  is  counted  as  entire  sanctification,  though 
the  sanctification  may  not  be  entire.  Around  these  three  cen- 
ters of  blessing — one  in  Christ  Jesus — revolve,  according  to  this 
theology,  as  according  to  the  Hew  Testament,  all  the  privileges 
of  the  new  covenant.  The  soul  is  set  right  with  the  law,  is 
received  as  a son,  and  is  sanctified  in  the  temple.  In  the  first, 


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Jesus  is  the  advocate  and  his  atonement  a satisfaction;  in  the 
second,  he  is  the  first-born  among  many  brethren,  and  his  atone- 
ment is  the  reconciliation ; in  the  third,  he  is  the  high-priest, 
and  his  atonement  is  a sacrifice  for  sins.  In  the  court  of  law 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  convincer  of  sin  to  the  transgressor, 
assuring  him  of  pardon ; in  the  home  he  is  the  Spirit  of  adop- 
tion to  the  prodigal,  witnessing,  together  with  his  regenerate 
spirit,  that  he  is  a child  of  God ; and  he  is  in  the  temple  the 
silent,  indwelling  seal  of  consecration. 

But  this  leads  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit, 
which  has  been  sometimes  regarded  as  a Methodist  peculiarity. 
By  many  it  is  set  down  as  a specimen  of  what  may  be  called 
an  inductive  theology ; that  is,  as  a formula  for  certain  experi- 
ences enjoyed  by  the  early  converts  of  the  system.  How,  there 
can  be  no  question  that  there  is  some  truth  in  this.  The  ex- 
periences of  multitudes  who  felt  suddenly  and  most  assuredly 
delivered  from  the  sense  of  condemnation,  enabled  to  pray  to 
God  as  a reconciled  father,  and  conscious  of  their  sanctification 
to  his  service,  may  be  said  to  have  anticipated  the  confirmation 
of  the  word  of  God.  They  first  read  in  their  own  hearts  what 
they  afterward  read  in  their  Bibles.  For  that  the  induction  of 
experience  coincides  in  this  with  biblical  induction  is  most 
certain.  That  it  is  the  privilege  of  those  who  are  new  creatures 
in  Christ  Jesus,  and  have  passed  from  death  unto  fife,  to  know 
the  things  that  are  freely  given  them  of  God,  cannot  be  denied 
by  any  who,  with  unprejudiced  eyes,  read  the  Hew  Testament. 
In  fact,  the  general  principle  is  admitted  in  all  communions, 
the  differences  among  them  having  reference  either  to  certain 
restrictions  in  the  evidence  itself,  or  to  the  medium  through 
which  it  is  imparted.  A large  portion  of  Christendom  unite 
this  witness  with  sacramental  means  and  ordinances ; making 
personal  assurance  of  salvation  dependent  on  priestly  absolu- 
tion, either  with  or  without  a sacrament  devised  for  the  pur- 
pose. Another,  and  almost  equally  large  body  of  Christian 
teachers,  make  this  high  privilege  a special  blessing  vouch- 


Methodist  Doctrine. 


183 


safed  to  God’s  elect  as  the  fruit  or  reward  of  long  discipline 
and  the  divine  seal  upon  earnest  perseverance  ; but,  when  im- 
parted, this  assurance  includes  the  future  ■ as  well  as  the  past, 
and  is  the  knowledge  of  an  irreversible  decree  of  acceptance 
which  nothing  can  avail  to  undermine  however  much  it  may  be 
occasionally  clouded.  The  Methodist  doctrine  is  distinguished 
from  these  by  a few  strong  points  which  it  has  held  with  deep 
tenacity  from  the  beginning.  It  believes  that  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit  to  the  spirit  in  man  is  direct  and  clear ; distinct 
from  the  word,  and  from  the  faith  that  lays  hold  on  the  word, 
though  closely  connected  with  both.  It  is  not  separated  from 
the  testimony  which  is  believed ; for,  implicitly  or  explicitly, 
the  promise  in  Christ  must  be  apprehended  by  faith.  But 
faith  in  this  matter  is  rather  trust  in  a Person  than  belief  of 
a record ; and  that  trust  is  distinct  from  the  assurance  He 
gives,  though  that  assurance  follows  so  hard  upon  it  that  in 
the  supreme  blessedness  of  appropriating  confidence  they  are 
scarcely  to  be  distinguished.  While  the  faith  itself  may  be  al- 
ways firm,  the  assurance  may  be  sometimes  clouded  and  uncer- 
tain. neither  can  co-exist  with  lapse  into  sin ; and  therefore 
the  witness  may  be  suspended,  or  may  be  indeed  finally  lost. 
It  is  the  assurance  of  faith  only  for  the  present ; only  the  assur- 
ance of  hope  for  the  future.  It  may  be  calm  in  its  peace,  or 
may  be  quickened  into  rapture.  But  it  must  be  confirmed  by 
the  testimony  of  a good  conscience  ; while,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  is  often  the  silencer  of  a conscience  unduly  disturbed.  It  is, 
to  sum  up,  in  all  types  of  Methodist  theology — whatever  abuses 
it  may  suffer  in  some  Methodist  conceptions  of  it — no  other  than 
the  soul’s  consciousness  of  an  indwelhng  Saviour  through  the 
secret  and  inexplicable  influence  of  his  Holy  Spirit. 

Perhaps  the  most  eminent  peculiarity  of  the  type  of  doctrine 
called  Methodist  is  its  unfaltering  assertion  of  the  believer’s 
privilege  to  be  dehvered  from  indwelhng  sin  in  the  present 
life.  Its  unfaltering  assertion  : for  although  varying  very 
much  on  some  subordinate  matters  of  statement  as  to  the  means 


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of  attainment  and  the  accompanying  assurance,  it  has  always 
been  faithful  to  the  central  truth  itself.  Its  unfaltering  asser- 
tion : for  in  the  maintenance  of  this  it  has  met  with  the  most 
determined  hostility,  not  only  from  such  opponents  as  deny  the 
doctrines  of  grace  generally,  but  also  from  those  whose  evan- 
gelical theology  in  general  and  whose  high  sanctity  give  their 
opposition  a very  painful  character  and  make  it  very  embar- 
rassing. 

It  cannot  be  too  distinctly  impressed  that  the  one  element  in 
the  Methodist  doctrine  that  may  be  called  distinctive,  is  the 
article  that  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  sanctifying  believers  from 
sin — from  all  that  in  the  divine  estimate  is  sin — is  to  be  complete 
in  this  state  of  probation.  This  is  the  hope  it  sees  set  before 
us  in  the  Grospel,  and  this,  therefore,  it  presses  upon  the  pursuit 
and  attainment  of  all  who  are  in  Christ.  This  is,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  many,  its  specific  heresy ; this,  in  its  own  judgment,  is 
its  specific  glory.  It  may  be  said  that  the  suppression  and  de- 
struction of  inbred  sin,  or,  as  St.  Paul  calls  it,  indwelling  sin,  is 
the  one  point  where  its  aim  is  beyond  the  general  aim.  A 
long  catena  of  ecclesiastical  testimonies  bears  witness  that  a 
high  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection  has  been  taught  in  all 
ages,  and  in  many  communities ; coming,  in  some  instances, 
within  a hair’s-breadth  of  this,  but  shrinking  back  from  the  last 
expression  of  the  truth.  The  best  of  the  ascetics  and  mystics 
of  ancient  and  modern  times  both  taught  and  exemplified  a 
high  standard  of  purification  from  sin,  interior  illumination, 
and  supernatural  union  with  Cod ; but,  whether  from  miscon- 
ceived humility  or  jack  of  the  highest  triumph  of  faith,  they 
invariably  reserved  the  secret  residue  of  evil  as  necessary  to 
human  discipline.  This  last  fetter  Methodism  will  not  reserve ; 
its  doctrine  pursues  the  alien  and  the  enemy  into  its  most  in- 
terior stronghold,  and  destroys  it  there ; so  that  the  temple  of 
God  in  the  human  spirit  shall  be  not  only  emptied  of  sin,  but 
swept  also  from  every  trace  that  it  had  been  there,  and  gar- 
nished with  all  the  graces  of  the  divine  image.  It  reads  and 


Methodist  Docteeste. 


186 


fearlessly  interprets  all  tliose  clauses  in  the  charter  of  grace 
which  speak  of  the  destruction  of  the  body  of  sin,  of  putting 
off  the  old  man,  of  crucifying  the  flesh  unto  death,  of  an  entire 
sanctiflcation  of  man’s  whole  natm’e,  of  a preservation  in  fault- 
lessness, of  a perfect  love  casting  out  fear,  of  being  purifled  as 
Christ  is  pure,  and  of  the  love  of  God  perfected  in  the  human 
soul.  Against  this  array  of  testimonies  there  is  no  argument 
that  comes  from  God ; there  is  no  contradictory  array  of 
scriptural  testimonies.  Redemption  from  the  flesh  spiritually 
understood,  is  not  made  synonymous  or  simultaneous  with  re- 
demption from  the  flesh  physically  interpreted.  Ko  sin  can 
pass  the  threshold  of  life,  for  the  expurgation  of  intermediate 
fires  of  discipline  ; and  there  is  no  provision  in  heaven  for  the 
destraction  of  evil.  Death  itself  cannot  take  the  office  of  the 
atoning  blood  and  the  purifying  Spirit.  Then  it  follows  that 
the  final  stroke  must  be  in  the  present  life ; the  atonement  is 
not  more  certainly  a finished  work  than  the  application  of  it 
by  the  Holy  Ghost ; the  Spirit’s  “It  is  finished ” must  needs 
follow  the  Son’s,  and  in  a voice  that  speaks  on  earth.  All 
Scripture  speaks  of  a holy  discipline,  longer  or  shorter,  effect- 
ual in  all  branches  of  ethics  and  of  the  imitation  of  Christ  and 
of  charity  to  man,  which  precedes  it ; and  of  a continual  ad- 
vancement in  every  thing  heavenly  that  follows  it : but  there 
must  be  a sacred  moment  of  final  deliverance  from  what  God 
sees  as  sin  in  the  soul.  This  is  Christian  perfection — a word 
which  is  essentially  conditioned : a word  which,  indeed,  is 
not  affected  by  Methodist  theology  ; and,  when  used,  is  always 
guarded  by  its  necessary  adjectives  of  Christian,  evangelical, 
and  relative. 

Something  has  been  said  of  the  inductive  character  of  Meth- 
odist doctrine  generally,  and  with  special  reference  to  its  views 
of  personal  assurance  as  being  much  built  upon  personal  ex- 
perience. How.it  must  be  asserted  that  with  regard  to  the 
present  doctrine  of  an  entire  deliverance  from  sin,  the  induc- 
tion was  primarily  and  pre-eminently  a scriptural  one.  Meth- 


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odism  began  to  announce  this  liigb  and  most  sacred  possibility 
of  tbe  Christian  life  very  early ; in  fact,  long  before  any  expe- 
rience of  its  own  verified  the  announcement : and  it  has  con- 
tinued the  testimony  until  now  altogether  apart  from  the 
vouchers  of  living  witnesses.  Its  principle  has  been  that  God’s 
word  must  be  true,  and  his  standard  the  right  one,  however 
the  lives  of  the  saints  may  halt  behind  it.  At  the  same  time,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  in  the  historical  development  of  the 
Methodist  doctrine  itseK,  the  induction  of  its  own  experiences 
has  played  an  important  part,  and  not  always  a satisfactory  one. 
Time  would  fail,  and  it  would  be  an  ungrateful  task,  to  explain 
in  what  sense  it  has  been  sometimes  unsatisfactory.  Suffice  to 
say,  that  some  forms  of  the  doctrine  assert,  with  more  or  less  of 
positiveness,  what  cannot  be  maintained  by  the  warranty  of  the 
Bible ; based  upon  experimental  inductions  not  controlled  by 
Scripture.  The  “ second  blessing  ” is  sometimes  confounded 
with  the  first,  as  if  an  entire  consecration  to  God,  which  is 
the  perfect  beginning  only,  were  an  entire  sanctification  from 
all  sin  ; a blessing,  it  may  be,  yet  far  in  the  distance.  The  effu- 
sion of  divine  love  in  the  soul,  sometimes  to  so  full  a degree  as 
to  make  the  possibility  of  sinning  a strange  thought  to  the  soul, 
is  sometimes  mistaken  for  that  “ perfected  love  ” of  which  it  is 
only  the  earnest.  We  must  go  to  St.  John’s  first  Epistle — the 
last  testimony  of  the  Bible — for  our  doctrine  on  this  subject. 
Now  that  Epistle  gives  the  most  expficit  assurance  that  there 
is  set  before  the  aspiration  of  the  saint  a perfected  and  finished 
operation  of  divine  love,  the  triumph  of  which  is  the  extinction 
of  sin  and  fear.  But  it  is  observable,  that  before  the  last  testi- 
mony to  love  in  man  as  perfected,  we  have  three  testimonies  to 
the  gradual  operation  of  the  love  of  God  in  us,  which  carry  it 
into  the  three  departments  of  the  covenant  of  grace  mentioned 
above.  First,  into  that  of  law : “Whoso  keepeth  his  word,  in 
him  verily  is  the  love  of  God  perfected.”  Perfected  love  is, 
in  the  estimation  of  God,  the  fulfilling  of  the  righteousness  of 
the  law,  and  its  triumph  is  bound  up  with  our  habitual  obedi- 


Methodist  Doctrihe, 


187 


ence  in  all  things.  Secondly,  into  the  department  of  sonship  : 
“ If  we  love  one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us,  and  his  love  is 
perfected  in  us.”  Universal,  boundless,  self-sacrificing  charity 
— for  such  is  the  pattern  of  Christ’s  charity— is  the  condition 
as  well  as  the  goal  of  perfected  love.  Thirdly,  into  the  temple  of 
consecration  : “ He  that  dwelleth  in  love,  dwelleth  in  God,  and 
God  in  him.  Herein  is  our  love  ” — love  with  us — “ made  per- 
fect.” Abstraction  from  all  created  desire,  and  supreme  union 
with  God,  is  also  both  the  condition  and  the  croAvn  of  perfected 
love.  Much  more  might  be  written  on  this  subject : but  this  is 
enough,  notwithstanding  every  drawback,  it  still  remains  that 
the  testimony  borne  for  a century  to  the  highest  privileges  of 
the  Christian  covenant  is  the  glory  of  its  theology.  It  has 
stimulated  the  religious  life  of  countless  multitudes.  It  has  kept 
before  the  eyes  of  the  people  formed  by  it  the  one  supreme 
thought,  that  Christianity  is  a religion  which  has  one  only  goal, 
whether  in  the  Church  or  in  the  individual — the  destruction  of 
sin.  And  we  believe  the  day  is  coming  when  the  Church  of 
God  upon  earth  will  have  given  to  it  an  enlarged  heart  to 
receive  this  doctrine  in  all  its  depth  and  fullness. 

Slight  as  this  sketch  has  been,  it  has  not  omitted  any  point 
that  may  be  fairly  included  in  the  differentia  of  the  theology 
called  Methodist.  Of  course,  it  has  its  specific  type  of  presenta- 
tion in  the  case  of  many  articles  of  the  creed ; but  it  would  be 
an  endless  task  to  dwell  upon  these,  especially  as  in  regard  to 
some  of  them  there  is  no  definite  standard  among  Methodist 
people.  They  claim  a certain  latitude  in  the  minor  develop- 
ments of  central  truths ; and  are  as  free  in  the  non-essentials 
as  they  are  rigid  in  the  essentials  of  the  faith.  The  body  of 
divines  whose  theology  is  thus  described  are  far  from  being 
bound  to  a system  stereotyped  and  reticulated  in  its  minutest 
detail.  'Wliile  the  slightest  deviation  from  what  may  be  here 
called  orthodoxy  or  fundamental  doctrine  never  fails  to  awaken 
the  keenest  sensibility,  and  any  thing  like  vital  error  is  infalli- 
bly detected  and  cast  out,  there  is  a very  large  tolerance  on 


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subordinate  matters.  That  tolerance  some  may  think  carried 
too  far ; but  be  that  as  it  may,  it  exists,  and  it  always  will  exist. 
This  may  be  illustrated  by  two  topics,  in  themselves  of  vital 
importance,  but  the  aspects  of  which  vary  to  different  minds. 
One  is  the  inspiration  of  Holy  Scripture.  The  general  truth 
that  the  Bible  is,  from  beginning  to  end,  the  fruit  of  the  Spir- 
it’s agency  and  the  authoritative  standard  of  faith,  directory  of 
morals  and  charter  of  privileges,  is  firmly  and  universally  held : 
Methodism  knows  no  vacillation  here.  It  is  free  from  the 
error  which  enlarges  the  limits  of  the  canon,  on  the  one  hand, 
with  the  Romanists ; and  from  that  which  contracts  them  by 
making  the  word  of  God  a certain  something  within  the  Bible 
which  men  must  find  for  themselves.  It  does  not  admit  the 
concurrent  endowment  of  the  Church  with  a perpetual  inspira- 
tion ; thus  introducing  two  voices,  that  of  Scripture  and  that 
of  the  Church,  one  of  which  may  contradict  or  neutralize  the 
other.  It  has  never  shared  the  laxity  of  the  Reformers 
and  of  the  Arminians  as  to  certain  books  and  certain  degrees 
of  inspiration : no  modern  theology  is  more  faithful  to  the 
plenary  authority  of  Scripture ; none  approaches  nearer  than 
it  does  to  the  high  strain  of  the  early  fathers.  But,  inasmuch 
as  Scripture  itself  never  defines  or  gives  the  sense  of  its  own 
inspiration,  Methodism  does  not  attempt  to  supply  its  deficiency, 
and  define  what  is  undefinable.  It  leaves,  for  instance,  the 
many  vexed  questions  which  crowd  around  what  is  called  verbal 
inspiration,  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  text  here  and  there 
arising  from  the  withdrawal  of  the  autographs,  and  the  methods 
of  reconciling  the  seeming  discrepancies  of  Scripture,  to  con- 
scientious and  enlightened  private  judgment.  It  allows  the 
same  latitude  here,  no  more  no  less,  that  every  evangelical  com- 
munity allows.  But  no  community  falls  back  more  absolutely 
or  more  implicitly  than  Methodism  upon  the  supreme  defense 
of  the  entire  Bible  which  our  Lord’s  authority  gives  it : of  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures  as  we  hold  them  by  his  own  word  ; 
of  the  Hew  Testament  Scriptures  by  his  Spirit.  It  cannot  be 


Methodist  Docteine. 


189 


said  that  it  is  more  swayed  than  others  by  the  self -evidencing 
light  of  the  word  of  God  ; but  certainly  none  are  more  swayed 
by  it.  And  it  may  be  asserted  with  confidence,  though  with- 
out boasting,  that  there  is  no  communion  in  Christendom  the 
theological  writings  of  which  are  so  universally  free  from  the 
tincture  of  doubt  or  suspicion  as  to  the  supremacy  of  the  Bible. 
This  is  not — as  some  would  affirm — through  the  lack  of  either 
independent  thought  or  biblical  culture  ; this  loyalty  of  Meth- 
odism rests  upon  the  best  of  all  foundations. 

Another  is  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments.  Methodist  teach- 
ing has,  from  the  beginning,  mediated  here  between  two  ex- 
tremes wlfich  need  not  be  more  particularly  defined : in  that 
mediation  keeping  company  with  the  Anglican  Formularies, 
and  the  Presbyterian  Westminster  Confession,  both  of  which 
raise  them  above  mere  signs,  and  lay  stress  on  their  being  seals 
or  pledges  or  instruments  of  the  impartation  of  the  grace  sig- 
nified to  the  prepared  recipient.  All  its  old  standards,  includ- 
ing its  hymns,  bear  witness  to  this  ; they  abundantly  and  irre- 
sistibly confirm  our  assertion  as  to  the  sacramental  idea  gener- 
erally.  As  to  the  two  ordinances  in  particular,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  sentiments  of  the  various  Methodist  com- 
munions run  through  a wide  range.  Recoil  from  exaggerated 
doctrine  has  led  many  toward  the  opposite  extreme;  and  a 
large  proportion  of  their  ministers  put  a very  free  construction 
upon  their  standards,  and  practically  regard  the  two  sacraments 
as  badges  simply  of  Christian  profession,  the  Eucharist  being 
to  them  a special  means  of  grace  in  the  common  sense  of  the 
phrase.  There  is  a wide  discretion  allowed  in  this  matter,  and 
the  wisdom  of  this  discretion  is,  on  the  whole,  justified.  With 
that  question,  however,  we  have  nothing  to  do  here ; our  only 
object  being  to  state  the  ease  as  it  is. 

But  this  essay  must  be  closed,  leaving  untouched  many  sub- 
jects which  naturally  appeal  for  consideration.  Something 
ought  to  be  said  as  to  the  controversial  aspect  of  this  theology. 
But  leaving  that  for  other  essays,  we  have  only  to  commend 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


the  general  principles  of  the  Methodist  theology  to  any  strangers 
to  it  who  may  read  these  pages.  They  will  find  it  clear  and 
consistent,  on  the  whole,  as  a human  system,  worthy  of  much 
more  attention  than  it  usually  receives  from  the  Christian 
world ; and,  what  is  of  far  more  importance,  they  will  find  it 
pervaded  by  the  “ unction  from  the  Holy  One,”  which  is  the 
secret  of  aU  truth  and  of  aU  edification. 


IDEAS  WESLEY  DEVELOPED  IN  OEGANIZ- 
ING  HIS  SOCIETIES. 


Johns’  WESLEY  has  given  currency  to  a set  of  divine  ideas 
easily  acted  upon  but  not  always  clearly  apprehended,  which 
make  up  the  sum  of  personal  religion,  and  without  which,  it 
may  be  added,  personal  religion  cannot  exist.  This  is  the 
philosophy  of  his  career ; perhaps  very  imperfectly  understood 
by  himself,  probably  never  drawn  out  by  him  in  a systematic 
form,  yet  sufficiently  obvious  to  us  who  look  back  upon  his 
completed  life,  and  live  amid  the  results  of  his  labors.  Im- 
mersed in  the  complexities  of  the  game,  the  turmoil  of  the 
storm  in  which  his  busy  life  was  cast,  the  unceasing  struggle 
of  his  soul  with  the  gigantic  evils  of  the  world,  he  could 
neither  observe  nor  analyze,  as  we  can  do,  the  elements  ar- 
rayed against  him  nor  the  principles  evolved  in  the  conflict 
that  were  ministrant  to  his  success.  As  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
instinctively  raising  the  arm  or  lowering  the  eyelid  to  repel  or 
shun  danger,  so  he  adapted  measures  and  evolved  truths  by  force 
of  circumstances  more  than  by  forethought — those  truths  and 
measures  so  adapted  to  his  position  as  a preacher  of  righteous- 
ness amid  an  opposing  generation  that  we  recognize  in  their 
adaptation  and  natural  evolution  proof  of  their  divineness. 
They  are  the  same  truths  which  were  exhibited  in  the  first 
struggles  of  an  infant  Christianity  with  the  serpent  of  pagan- 
ism; and  when  exhibited  again  upon  a like  arena  seventeen 
centuries  afterward  with  similar  success,  are  thus  proved  to  be 
every-where  and  always  the  same,  eternal  as  abstract  truth, 
and  essential  as  the  existence  of  God. 

The  first  grand  truth  thrown  upon  the  surface  of  John 


192 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume, 


Wesley’s  career,  we  take  to  be  the  absolute  necessity  of  per- 
sonal and  individual  religion. 

To  tbe  yoke  of  this  necessity  he  himself  bowed  at  every 
period  of  his  history.  Vever,  even  when  most  completely 
astray  as  to  the  ground  of  the  sinner’s  justification  before 
God,  did  he  fail  to  recognize  the  necessity  of  conversion,  and 
of  individual  subjection  to  the  laws  of  the  Most  High.  What 
he  required  of  others,  and  constantly  taught,  he  cheerfully  ob- 
served himself.  Very  soon  after  starting  upon  his  course  did 
he  learn  that  the  laver  of  baptism  was  unavailing  to  wash 
away  the  stain  of  human  defilement ; the  Supper  of  the  Lord, 
to  secure  admission  to  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb ; and 
Church  organization,  to  draft  men  collectively  to  heaven  by 
simple  virtue  of  its  corporate  existence.  These  delusions, 
whereby  souls  are  beguiled  to  their  eternal  wrong,  soon  ceased 
to  juggle  him  ; for  his  eye,  kindled  to  intelligence  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  pierced  the  transparent  cheat.  He  ascertained  at  a 
very  early  period  that  the  Church  had  no  delegated  power  to 
ticket  men  in  companies  for  a celestial  journey,  and  sweep 
them  railroad-wise  in  multitudes  to  their  goal ; consequently, 
that  this  power,  where  claimed  or  conceded,  was  usurpation  on 
the  one  hand,  and  a compound  of  credulousness  and  servility 
on  the  other,  insulting  to  God  and  degrading  to  man.  But  he 
began  with  himself.  We  suppose  he  never  knew  the  hour  in 
which  he  did  not  feel  the  need  of  personal  religion  to  secure 
the  salvation  of  the  soul.  He  was  happily  circumstanced  in 
being  the  son  of  pious  and  intelligent  parents,  who  would 
carefully  guard  him  against  the  prevalent  errors  on  these 
points.  He  never  could  have  believed  presentation  at  the  font 
to  be  salvation,  nor  the  vicarious  vow  of  sponsors  to  be  a substi- 
tute for  personal  renunciation  of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil : and  he  early  showed  this.  When  the  time  of  his  ordi- 
nation drew  nigh,  and  he  was  about  to  be  inducted  into  the 
cure  of  souls,  he  was  visited  with  great  searchings  of  heart. 
His  views  of  the  mode  of  the  sinner’s  acceptance  with  God 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


193 


were  confused,  indeed ; but  on  tbe  subject  of  personal  conse- 
cration they  may  be  said  never  to  bave  varied.  Fighting  his 
way,  as  he  was  called  to  do,  through  a lengthened  period  of 
experimental  obscurity — “ working  out  his  salvation  tyith  fear 
and  trembling  ” — we  nevertheless  cannot  point  to  any  moment 
in  his  spiritual  history  in  which  he  was  not  a child  of  Grod. 
What  an  incomparable  mother  he  must  have  had ! What  a 
hold  must  she  have  established  upon  his  esteem  and  confi- 
dence, to  whom  this  Fellow  of  a college  referred  his  scruples 
and  difficulties  in  view  of  his  ordination,  and  whom  his  schol- 
arly father  bade  him  consult  when  his  O'wn  studious  habits  and 
abundant  occupations  forbade  correspondence  with  himself ! 
Animated  to  religious  feeling  about  this  time,  he  made  a sur- 
render of  himself  to  God ; made  in  partial  ignorance,  but 
never  revoked.  “ I resolved,”  he  says,  “ to  dedicate  all  my 
life  to  God,  all  my  thoughts,  and  words,  and  actions ; being 
thoroughly  convinced  there  was  no  medium ; but  that  every 
jpart  of  my  life  (not  some  only)  must  either  be  a sacrifice  to 
God  or  myself,  that  is,  in  effect,  to  the  devil.”  And  his  pious 
father,  seconding  his  son’s  resolve,  replies : “ God  fit  you  for 
your  great  work ! fast,  watch,  and  pray ! believe,  love,  endure, 
and  be  happy  ! ” And  so  he  did,  according  to  his  knowledge  ; 
for  a more  conscientious  clergyman  and  teacher,  for  the  space 
of  ten  years,  never  lived  than  the  Kev.  John  Wesley,  Fellow 
and  tutor  of  Lincoln. 

But  there  was  a whole  world  of  spiritual  experience  yet 
untrodden  by  him  amid  the  round  of  his  college  duties,  ascetic 
practices,  and  abounding  charities.  His  heart  told  him,  and 
books  told  him,  and  the  Kttle  godly  company  who  met  in 
his  rooms  all  told  him,  in . tones  more  or  less  distinct,  that  he 
had  not  yet  attained ; that  he  was  still  short  of  the  mark ; that 
the  joys  of  religion  escaped  his  reach,  though  its  duties  were 
unexceptionably  performed.  His  course  of  reading,  the  mystic 
and  ascetic  writers,  together  with  the  diy  scholastic  divinity 
that  furnishes  the  understanding  but  often  drains  the  heart, 


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tended  to  this  result — to  fill  the  life  with  holy  exercises  rather 
than  to  overfiow  the  sonl  with  sacred  pleasure.  Of  the 
simple,  ardent,  gladsome,  gracious  piety  of  the  poor  he  yet 
knew  next  to  nothing.  But  God  was  leading  him  through  the 
wilderness  of  such  an  experience  as  this  by  a right  way  to  a 
city  of  habitation,  doubtless  that  he  might  be  a wise  instractor 
to  others  who  should  be  involved  hereafter  in  mazes  like  his 
own.  He  looked  upon  religion  as  a debt  due  by  the  creature 
to  the  Creator,  and  he  paid  it  with  the  same  sense  of  con- 
straint with  which  one  pays  a debt,  instead  of  regarding  it 
as  the  ready  service  of  a child  of  God.  A child  of  God 
could  not  be  other  than  religions  ; but,  more  than  this,  he 
would  not  if  he  could ; religion  is  his  “ vital  breath,”  his  “ na- 
tive air.” 

But  Wesley  did  not  understand,  as  yet,  the  doctrine  of  free 
pardon,  the  new  birth,  and  the  life  of  faith ; he,  therefore, 
worked — conscientiously  and  laboriously  worked — like  a serv- 
ant, and  not  like  a son,  of  God.  But  God  sent  some  poor  Cal- 
vinists to  teach  him  these  truths ; and  he  was  not  too  proud  to 
learn  from  very  humble  but  sufficiently  enlightened  teachers — a 
few  Moravian  emigrants  that  sailed  in  the  same  vessel  with  him 
to  Georgia.  Their  unaffected  humility,  unruffled  good  temper, 
and  serenest  self-possession  in  prospect  of  death  when  storms 
overtook  the  ship,  struck  him  forcibly,  and  made  him  feel  that 
they  had  reached  an  eminence  in  the  divine  life  on  which  his 
college  studies,  extensive  erudition,  and  pains-taking  devotion 
had  failed  to  land  himself.  He,  therefore,  sat  himseK  at  their 
feet ; he  verified  the  Scripture  metaphor,  and  became  “ a little 
child.”  In  nothing  was  the  lofty  wisdom  of  John  Wesley,  and 
his  submission  to  divine  teaching,  more  apparent  than  in  this, 
that  he  made  himself  a fool  that  he  might  be  wise.  Salvation 
by  grace,  and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  were  taught  him  by 
these  God-fearing  and  happy  Moravians ; and  his  understand- 
ing became  full  of  light.  It  was  only,  however,  some  three 
years  afterward,  subsequent  to  his  return  to  England,  which 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


195 


took  place  in  1738,  that  the  joy  of  this  free,  present,  eternal 
salvation  flowed  in  upon  his  soul.  The  peace  of  God  which 
passeth  all  understanding  took  possession  of  heart  and  mind 
through  Christ  Jesus,  and  for  fifty  years  afterward  he  never 
doubted,  he  never  could  doubt,  of  his  acceptance  with  our 
Father  who  is  in  heaven.  The  sunshine  of  his  soul  communi- 
cated itself  to  his  countenance,  and  lighted  all  his  conversation. 
To  speak  with  him  seemed  almost  like  speaking  with  an  angel 
of  God. 

From  that  time  he  began  to  preach  a new  doctrine — a doc- 
trme  of  privilege  as  well  as  duty ; of  acceptance  through  the 
Beloved,  an  assured  sense  of  pardon,  and  the  happiness  of  the 
service  of  God.  And  God  gave  him  unlooked-for,  unhoped-for 
success.  Excluded  by  almost  universal  consent  from  the 
churches  of  the  Establishment,  he  betook  himseK  to  barns  and 
stable  yards  and  inn  rooms ; and  ultimately,  with  Whitefleld, 
to  the  open  air,  to  the  streets  and  lanes  of  the  city,  to  the  hills 
and  valleys,  and  to  the  commons  and  heaths  of  his  native  land ; 
and  with  power  and  unction,  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  much 
assurance,  did  he  testify  to  each  of  his  hearers  the  doctrines  of 
personal  repentance  and  faith,  and  the  necessity  of  the  new 
birth  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul.  And  signs  and  wonders  fol- 
lowed in  them  that  believed ; multitudes  were  smitten  to  the 
groimd  under  the  sword  of  the  Spirit ; many  a congregation  was 
changed  into  a Bochim,  a place  of  weeping ; and  amid  sobs  and 
tears  and  wailings  beneath  which  the  hearts  of  the  most  stub- 
born sinners  quailed,  one  universal  cry  arose,  “ What  must  we 
do  to  be  saved  ? ” J ohn  W esley’s  divine,  simple,  scriptural 
answer  was,  “Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt 
be  saved.” 

His  personal  experience  of  the  etficaey  of  the  prescription 

gave  confidence  to  his  advice.  The  physician  had  been  healed 

himseK  flrst ; he  had  been  his  own  earhest  patient ; he  knew 

the  bitterness  of  the  pain,  the  virulence  of  the  disease,  and 

had  proved  the  sanative  power  of  his  remedy.  The  ordeal  of 
13 


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the  new  birth  he  had  tried  before  recommending  it  to  others. 
He  had  visited  the  pool  of  Bethesda,  and  could,  therefore, 
speak  well  of  its  waters. 

And  well  might  it  work  such  change,  to  have  the  necessity 
of  personal  religion  insisted  upon  with  such  unprecedented  par- 
ticularity and  pointedness.  He  singled  out  each  hearer ; he  al- 
lowed no  evasion  amid  the  multitude  ; he  showed  how  salvation 
was  not  by  a church,  nor  by  families,  nor  by  ministers,  nor  by 
ordinances,  nor  by  national  communions,  but  by  a deep,  sin- 
gular, individual  experience  of  religion  in  the  soul.  His  ad- 
dress was  framed  upon  the  model  of  the  Scripture  query, 
“ Dost  thou  believe  upon  the  Son  of  God  ? ” 

A second  truth  developed  in  the  ministry  of  John  Wesley  is, 
the  absolute  need  of  spiritual  influence  to  secure  the  conversion 
of  the  soul. 

Conversion  is  not  a question  of  willing  or  not  willing  on  the 
part  of  man.  The  soul  bears  no  resemblance  to  the  muscles  of 
the  healthy  arm,  which  the  mere  will  to  straighten  and  stiffen 
throws  into  a state  of  rigid  tension  at  the  instant,  and  retains 
them  so  at  pleasure.  The  soul  is  in  the  craze  and  wreck  of 
paralysis : the  power  of  action  does  not  respond  to  the  will : 
the  whole  head  is  sick,  the  heart  faint.  To  will  is  present  with 
us,  but  how  to  perform  that  which  is  good  we  know  not.  The 
sick  man  would  be  well,  but  the  wish  is  unavailing  till  the  sim- 
ple, the  leech,  and  the  blessing  of  the  Most  High,  conspire  to 
invigorate.  Just  so  it  is  with  the  soul;  it  must  tarry  till  it  be 
endued  with  power  from  on  high ; but  not,  be  it  understood,  in 
the  torpor  of  apathy,  nor  in  the  slough  of  despair;  no,  but 
wishing,  watching,  waiting.  Though  its  search  were  as  fruit- 
less as  that  of  Diogenes,  it  must  be  seeking,  nevertheless ; just 
as,  though  the  prophet’s  commission  be  to  preach  to  the  dead, 
he  must  not  dispute  nor  disobey.  We  must  strive  to  enter  in 
although  the  gate  be  strait  and  the  way  narrow ; we  must  be 
feeling  after  God,  if  haply  we  may  find  him,  though  it  be  amid 
the  darkness  of  nature  and  the  tremblings  of  dismay.  We  may 


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scarce  have  ability  to  repent  after  a godly  sort,  yet  ought  we  to 
bring  forth  “fruits  meet  for  repentance.”  With  God  alone 
may  rest  the  prerogative  to  pronounce  ns  “ sons  of  Abraham ; ” 
yet,  like  Zaccheus,  must  we  work  the  works  becoming  that 
relation,  and  right  the  wrong  and  feed  the  poor.  While,  then, 
we  emphatically  announce  the  doctrine  that  the  influence  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  necessary  to  quicken,  renew,  and  purify  the 
soul,  we  do  at  the  same  time  repudiate  the  principle  that  man 
may  fold  his  hands  in  sleep  till  the  divine  voice  arouse  him. 
jSTothing  short  of  a celestial  spark  can  ignite  the  Are  of  onr  sac- 
rifice, but  we  can  at  least  lay  the  wood  upon  the  altar.  Hone 
but  the  Lord  of  the  kingdom  can  admit  to  the  privilege  of  the 
kingdom ; but  at  the  same  time  it  is  well  to  make  inquiry  of 
him  who  keeps  the  door.  John  was  only  the  bridegroom’s 
friend,  the  herald  of  better  things  to  come ; yet  “Jerusalem, 
and  all  Judea,  and  all  the  region  round  about  Jordan,”  did  but 
their  duty  in  flocking  to  him  to  hear  his  tidings,  and  learn  where 
to  direct  their  homage.  To  endangered  men  the  night  was 
given  for  far  other  uses  than  for  sleep ; the  storm  is  high,  and 
the  rocks  are  near ; the  sails  are  rent,  and  the  planks  are  starting 
beneath  the  fury  of  the  winds  and  waves ! What  is  the  dictate 
of  wisdom,  of  imperious  necessity  ? what  but  to  ply  the  pump, 
to  undergird  the  ship,  to  strike  the  mast,  haul  taut  the  cordage, 
“ strengthen  the  things  that  remain,”  and  trust  in  the  Most 
High  ? If  safety  is  vouchsafed,  it  is  God  who  saves.  So  in 
spiritual  things,  man  must  strive  as  if  he  could  do  every  thing, 
and  trust  as  if  he  could  do  nothing ; and  in  regeneration  the 
Scripture  doctrine  is,  that  he  can  do  nothing.  He  may  accom- 
plish things  leading  thereto,  just  as  the  Jews  ministered  to  the 
resurrection  of  Lazarus  by  leading  Christ  to  the  sepulcher ; but 
it  was  the  Divine  voice  that  raised  the  dead.  Thus  sermons, 
scriptures,  catechisms,  and  all  the  machinery  of  Christian 
action,  wiU  be  tried  and  used,  dealt  out  by  the  minister  and 
shared  by  his  flock ; but  with  each  and  all  must  the  conviction 
rest,  that  it  is  not  by  might  of  mechanism,  nor  by  power  of 


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persuasion,  conversion  is  brought  about,  but  by  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  of  Hosts. 

This  truth  had  been  grievously  lost  sight  of  in  Wesley’s  days, 
sunk  in  the  tide  of  cold  morality  that  inundated  the  land,  and 
consigned  it  to  a theosophy  less  spiritual  than  that  of  Socrates 
or  Plato.  But  up  from  the  depths  of  the  heathenish  flood  our 
great  reformer  Ashed  this  imperishable  truth,  a treasure-trove 
exceeding  in  value  pearls  of  great  price,  or  a navy  of  sunken 
galleons.  And  throughout  his  ministry  this  shone  with  un- 
equaled light;  for  if  any  thing  distinguished  it  more  than 
another  from  contemporary  ministries,  it  was  the  emphatic 
prominence  it  assigned  to  the  Spirit’s  work  in  conversion. 
This  was  the  Pharos  of  his  teaching,  the  luminous  point  which 
led  the  world-tossed  soul  into  the  haven  of  assured  peace  and 
conscious  adoption.  And  much  need  was  there  that  this  dog- 
ma should  have  received  this  distinctive  pre-eminence  and 
peculiar  honor,  for  it  was  either  totally  forgotten,  coarsely  trav- 
estied, or  boldly  denied. 

Having  dealt  with  the  truths  that  bear  upon  personal  relig- 
ion and  individual  subjection  to  the  truth,  as  well  as  the  means 
whereby  this  was  to  be  effected,  the  direct  agency  of  the  di- 
vine Spirit — things  insisted  upon  with  untiring  energy  by  John 
Wesley — we  now  turn  attention  to  the  views  which  our  great 
reformer  put  forth  regarding  Christians  in  their  associated  ca- 
pacity. 

The  third  principle  which  Wesley  developed  is,  that  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a spiritual  organization,  consisting 
of  spiritual  men  associated  for  spiritual  purposes. 

This  is  the  theory  of  that  Church  of  which  he  was  for  sev- 
eral years  the  laborious  and  conscientious  minister,  and  is  no- 
where more  happily  expressed  than  in  its  Nineteenth  Article : 
“ The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a congregation  of  faithful 
men,  in  the  which  the  pure  word  of  Cod  is  preached,  and 
the  sacraments  duly  administered  according  to  Christ’s  ordi- 
nance, in  all  those  things  that  of  necessity  are  requisite  to  the 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


199 


same.”  But  this  beautiful  and  scriptural  theory  was  to  a great 
degree  an  unapproachable  ideal  in  England  until  that  sys- 
tem arose,  under  the  creative  hand  of  Wesley,  which  made  it  a 
reality  and  gave  it  a positive  existence,  “ a local  habitation  and 
a name.”  It  is  true  the  name  he  gave  it  was  not  “ Church ; ” 
it  was  “ The  Society,”  and  in  other  forms  and  subdivisions, 
bands,  classes,  etc. ; but  in  essence  it  was  the  same ; it  was  the 
union  and  communion  of  the  Lord’s  people  for  common  edifi- 
cation and  the  glory  of  Christ.  As  soon  as  two  or  three  con- 
verts were  made  to  those  earnest  personal  views  of  religion  he 
promulgated,  the  inclination  and  necessity  for  association  com- 
menced. It  was  seen  in  his  Oxford  praying  coterie ; seen  in 
his  fellowship  with  the  Moravians  ; and  afterward  fully  exem- 
plified in  the  mother-society  at  the  Foundery,  Moorfields,  and 
in  all  the  affiliated  societies  throughout  the  kingdom.  The  sim- 
ple object  of  these  associations  was  thus  explained  in  a set  of 
general  rules  for  their  governance,  published  by  the  brothers 
Wesley  in  1743.  The  preamble  states  the  nature  and  design  of 
a Methodist  Society  to  be  “ a company  of  men  having  the  form 
and  seeking  the  power  of  godliness ; united,  in  order  to  pray 
together,  to  receive  the  word  of  exhortation,  and  to  watch  over 
one  another  in  love,  that  they  may  help  each  other  to  work 
out  their  salvation.  There  is  only  one  condition  previously 
recpiired  in  those  who  desire  admission  into  these  Societies — a 
desire  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  be  saved  from 
their  sins.”  They  were  further  to  evidence  this  desire  : “ 1.  By 
doing  no  harm,  by  avoiding  evil  of  every  kind.  2.  By  doing 
good,  by  being  in  every  kind  merciful  after  their  power ; as 
they  have  opportunity,  doing  good  of  every  possible  sort,  and 
as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  all  men.  And,  3.  By  attending  upon 
all  the  ordinances  of  God.  Such  are  the  public  worship  of 
God ; the  ministry  of  the  word,  either  read  or  expounded ; the 
Supper  of  the  Lord  ; family  and  private  prayer ; searching  the 
Scriptures ; and  fasting,  or  abstinence.”  Whether  we  regard 
the  design  of  the  association  given  in  these  terms,  or  the  speci- 


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fication  of  duty,  we  seem  to  trace  a virtual  copy  of  the  articu- 
lar definition  of  the  Church  recently  cited.  Wesley  never  failed 
to  recognize  the  scriptural  distinction  between  the  Church  and 
the  world,  nor  to  mark  it.  While  he  viewed  with  becoming 
deference  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  and  bowed  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  magistrate  as  the  great  cement  of  human  society, 
the  clamp  that  binds  the  stones  of  the  edifice  together,  he  saw 
another  kingdom  pitched  within  the  borders  of  these,  differing 
from  them  in  every  thing,  and  infinitely  above  them,  yet  con- 
sentaneous with  them,  and  vesting  them  with  its  sanction,  itself 
all  the  while  purely  spiritual  in  its  basis,  laws,  privileges,  and 
Sovereign.  Blind  must  he  have  been,  to  a degree  incompatible 
with  his  general  perspicacity,  had  he  not  perceived  this.  The 
men  who  possessed  religion,  and  the  men  who  possessed  it  not, 
were  not  to  be  for  a moment  confounded.  They  might  be 
neighbors  in  locality  and  friends  in  good-will,  but  they  were 
as  wide  as  the  poles  asunder  in  sentiment.  The  quick  and  the 
dead  may  be  placed  side  by  side,  but  no  one  can  for  ever  so 
short  a period  mistake  dead  flesh  for  living  fiber,  the  abne- 
gation of  power  for  energy  in  repose.  The  Church  and  the 
church-yard  are  close  by,  but  the  worshipers  in  the  one  and  the 
dwellers  in  the  other  are  as  unlike  as  two  worlds  can  make 
them.  The  circle  within  the  circle — the  company  of  the  con- 
verted— the  imjperium  in  imperio — the  elect,  the  regenerate, 
Wesley  alwajs  distinguished  from  the  mass  of  mankind,  and 
made  special  provision  for  their  edification  in  all  his  organ- 
isms. 

And,  in  sooth,  the  marked  and  constant  recognition  of  this 
spiritual  incorporation  it  is  which  gives  revealed  religion  its 
only  chance  of  survival  in  the  world.  To  forget  it  is  practi- 
cally to  abolish  the  distinction  between  error  and  truth,  between 
right  and  wrong.  There  is  no  heresy  more  destructive  than  a 
bad  life.  To  class  the  men  of  good  life  and  the  men  of  bad 
together ; to  call  them  by  the  same  name,  and  elevate  them  to 
the  same  standing,  is  high  treason  against  the  majesty  of  truth, 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


201 


poisons  the  very  spring  of  morality,  and  does  conscience  to 
death.  A nation  cannot  be  a church,  nor  a church  a nation. 
The  case  of  Israel  was  the  only  one  in  which  the  two  kingdoms 
were  co-extensive,  conterminous.  A member  of  a nation  a man 
becomes  by  birth,  hut  a member  of  a church  only  by  a second 
birth.  Generation  is  his  title  to  the  one,  regeneration  to  the 
other.  The  one  is  a natural  accident,  the  other  a moral  state. 
Citizens  are  the  sons  of  the  soil,  Christians  are  the  sons  of 
heaven.  To  clothe,  then,  the  members  of  the  one  with  the 
livery  and  title  of  the  other,  without  the  prerequisite  qualifi- 
cation and  dignity,  is  not  only  a solecism  in  language  but  an 
outrage  upon  truth.  It  is  to  reconcile  opposites,  harmonize 
discords,  blend  dissimilitudes,  and  identify  tares  with  wheat, 
light  with  darkness,  fife  with  death.  It  is  the  destruction  of 
piety  among  the  converted,  for  they  see  the  unconverted 
honored  with  their  designation,  advanced  to  their  level, 
obtruded  upon  their  society.  It  is  ruin  to  the  souls  of  the 
unconverted ; because  without  effort  of  their  own,  without 
faith  or  prayer,  or  good  works,  or  reformation,  or  morals,  they 
are  surprised  with  the  style  and  title,  the  status  and  rewards,  of 
Christian  men.  This  is,  unfortunately,  the  practice  on  a large 
scale ; the  theory  is  otherwise  and  unexceptionable.  Imbued 
with  a deep  sense  of  the  beauty  and  correctness  of  the  theory, 
W esley  did  only  what  was  natural  and  right  when  he  sought 
to  make  it  a great  fact — a substance,  and  not  a shadow — in  the 
church  militant.  In  this  he  not  only  obeyed  a divine  injunc- 
tion, but  yielded  to  the  current  of  events.  By  a natural  attrac- 
tion his  converts  were  drawn  together.  Like  will  to  like. 
“ They  that  feared  the  Lord  spake  often  one  to  another ; ” and 
“ all  that  believed  were  together.”  The  particles  were  similar, 
the  aggregate  homogeneous.  They  had  gone  through  the  same 
throes,  rejoiced  in  the  same  parentage,  learned  in  the  same 
school,  and  embraced  the  same  destiny.  They  owned  a com- 
mon creed,  “one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and 
Father  of  all ; ” resisted  a common  temptation,  took  up  a com- 


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mon  cross,  and,  in  common,  renounced  tlie  world,  tlie  flesh,  and 
tlie  devil.  They  came  together  on  the  ground  of  identity  of 
character,  of  desire  for  mutual  discipline  and  beneflt,  and  of 
community  of  feeling  and  interest.  It  is  obvious  to  perceive 
that  "VV esley  did  not  oi’iginate  this  communion,  whether  it  were 
for  good  or  evil ; for  it  was  an  ordinance  of  God  in  its  primal 
institution,  and  in  this  particular  instance  arose  out  of  the  very 
nature  of  the  case.  Wesley  could  not  have  prevented  it,  except 
by  such  measures  as  would  have  undone  all  he  had  done.  God’s 
believing  people  found  one  another  out,  and  associated  by  a' 
law  as  flxed  and  unalterable  as  that  kali  and  acid  coalesce,  or 
that  the  needle  follows  the  magnet.  But  while  he  did  not  enact 
the  law  which  God’s  people  obeyed  in  this  close  inter-communion 
and  relationship,  he  understood  and  revered  it,  and  furthered 
and  regulated  the  intercourse  of  the  godly  by  the  various  enact- 
ments and  graduated  organizations  of  his  system.  He  set  the 
city  upon  the  hill,  and  bade  it  be  conspicuous ; the  lamp  upon 
the  stand,  and  bade  it  shine  ; the  vine  upon  the  soil,  and  said 
to  it.  Be  fruitful.  He  set  it  apart  and  trimmed  it,  and  hedged 
it  in ; convinced  that  such  a separation  as  Sci’ipture  enjoins 
was  essential  to  its  growth  and  welfare — a truth  the  Christian 
law  teaches,  and  individual  experience  con  Arms.  Every  beneflt 
the  institution  of  a Church  might  be  supposed  to  secure  is 
forfeited  when  the  Church  loses  its  distinctive  character,  and 
becomes  identified  with  the  world. 

But  neither  to  glorify  their  founder  by  their  closer  com- 
bination, nor  for  self-complacent  admiration,  nor  to  be  a gazing- 
stock  for  the  multitude,  nor  for  the  tittle-tattle  of  mutual 
gossipry,  did  John  Wesley  segregate  his  people;  no,  but  for 
their  good  and  the  good  of  mankind.  The  downy  bed  of  indo- 
lence for  the  Church,  or  the  obesity  that  grows  of  inaction, 
never  once  came  within  his  calculations  as  their  lot.  To  rub 
the  dust  from  each  other,  as  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  was  the  flrst 
object  of  their  association ; and  the  second,  to  weld  their  forces 
together  in  the  glowing  furnace  of  communion  for  the  beneflt 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


203 


of  the  Avorld.  They  were  to  rejoice  in  the  good  grapes  of  their 
own  gai’den,  and  sweeten  by  inoculation  and  culture  the  sour 
grapes  of  their  neighbors.  They  were  to  attract  all  goodness 
to  themselves ; and  where  it  was  wanting  create  it,  after  the 
Arab  proverb,  “ The  palm-tree  looks  upon  the  palm-tree,  and 
groweth  fruitful.”  It  was  as  the  salt  of  the  earth  they  were 
to  seek  to  retain  their  savor,  and  not  for  their  own  preservation 
alone.  ISTo  one  ever  more  sedulously  giiarded  the  inward  sub- 
jective aspect  of  the  Church,  its  self-denying  intent,  its  exclu- 
sion of  the  unholy  and  unclean,  than  John  Wesley ; and  no  one 
ever  directed  its  objective  gaze  outward  and  away  from  itself, 
to  have  compassion  on  the  ignorant  and  out  of  the  way,”  with 
more  untiring  industry  than  he.  He  knew  the  Church’s  mis- 
sion was  more  than  haK  unfulfilled,  while  it  locked  itself  up 
in  its  ark  of  security,  and  left  the  world  without  to  perish.  He 
was  himself  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  leave  the  wounded 
to  die,  passing  by  in  his  superciliousness,  and  asking,  “ Who  is 
my  neighbor  ? ” and  the  last  to  found  a community  which 
should  be  icy,  selfish,  and  unfeeling.  He  was  a working  min- 
ister, and  fathomed  the  depth  and  yielded  to  the  full  current 
of  the  truth,  that  the  Church  must  be  a working  Church. 
Armed  at  all  points  with  sympathies  which  brought  him  into 
contact  with  the  world  without,  the  Church  must  resemble 
him  in  this.  He  was  an  utterly  unselfish  being.  He,  if  ever 
any,  could  say ; “ I live  not  in  myself,  but  I become  portion 
of  that  around  me.” 

To  work  for  the  benefit  of  men  when  he  might  have  taken 
his  ease  became  a necessity  of  his  nature,  molded  upon  the 
pattern  of  his  self-sacrificing  Master,  and  the  law  of  his  being 
must  be  that  of  the  Church’s.  The  Church  must  “ do  or  die.” 
It  must  be  instant  in  season,  out  of  season.  It  must  go  into 
the  highways  and  hedges.  It  must  beseech  men  to  be  reconciled 
to  God.  It  must  compel  them  to  come  in.  It  must  give  no 
sleep  to  its  eyes  nor  slumber  to  its  eyelids  till  its  work  be  done. 
It  must  stand  on  the  top  of  high  places,  by  the  way  in  the 


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places  of  the  paths,  and  cry,  “ O ye  simple,  understand  wisdom  ; 
and  ye  fools,  be  ye  of  an  understanding  heart ! ” It  must  gather 
all  the  might  of  its  energies,  and  lavish  all  the  wealth  of  its 
resources,  and  exhaust  all  the  influences  it  can  command,  and 
coin  all  the  ingenuity  of  its  devices  into  schemes  for  the  saving 
benefit  of  the  world.  Thus,  not  merely  conservative  of  the 
truth  must  the  Church  be  for  its  own  edification  and  nurture, 
but  also  diffusive  of  the  truth  for  the  renewal  and  redemption 
of  all  around. 

And  these  were  grand  discoveries  a hundred  years  ago,  of 
which  the  credit  rests  very  mainly  with  the  Founder  of  Meth- 
odism, although  mere  commonplaces  now.  It  is  true  they 
were  partially  and  speculatively  held  even  then,  but  very  par- 
tially, and  in  the  region  of  thought  rather  than  of  action.  Some 
saw  the  truth  of  the  matter,  but  it  was  in  its  proverbial  dwell- 
ing, and  the  well  was  deep — just  perceptible  at  the  bottom,  but 
beyond  their  grasp ; while  to  the  many  the  waters  were  muddy, 
and  they  saw  it  not  at  all.  There  were  no  Bible,  Tract,  or  Mis- 
sionary Society  then  to  employ  the  Church’s  powers,  and  to 
indicate  its  path  of  duty.  But  Wesley  started  them  all.  He 
wrote  and  printed  and  circulated  books  in  thousands  iipon  thou- 
sands of  copies.  He  set  afloat  home  and  foreign  missions.  The 
Church  and  the  world  were  alike  asleep ; he  sounded  the  loud 
trumpet  of  the  Gospel,  and  awoke  the  world  to  tremble  and 
the  Church  to  work.  ISTever  was  such  a scene  before  in  En- 
gland. The  correctness  and  maturity  of  his  views  amid  the 
deep  darkness  surrounding  him  is  startling,  wonderful ; like 
the  idea  of  a catholic  Church  springing  up  amid  a sectarian 
Judaism.  It  is  midday  without  the  antecedent  dawn ; it  beggars 
thought ; it  defies  explanation.  A Church  in  earnest  as  a want 
of  the  times  is  even  now,  in  these  greatly  advanced  days,  strenu- 
ously demanded,  and  eloquently  enforced  by  appeal  after  appeal 
from  the  press,  the  platform,  and  the  pulpit;  but  Wesley  gave 
it  practical  existence  from  the  very  birth-hour  of  his  Society. 
His  vigorous  bantling  rent  the  swathing  bands  of  quiet  self- 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


205 


communing  and  prevalent  custom,  and  gave  itself,  a young 
Hercules,  to  the  struggle  with  the  inertia  of  the  Church  and 
the  opposition  of  the  world.  Successfully  it  encountered  both. 
It  quickened  the  one  and  subdued  the  other,  and  attained*  by 
the  endeavor  the  muscular  development,  and  manful  port,  and 
indomitable  energy  of  its  present  life.  John  Wesley’s  Church 
is  no  mummy-chamber  of  a pyramid,  silent,  sepulchral,  gar- 
nished with  still  figures  in  hieroglyphic  coif  and  cerecloth, 
but  a busy  town,  a busier  hive,  himself  the  informing  spirit, 
the  parent  energy,  the  exemplary  genius  of  the  whole.  Hever 
was  the  character  of  the  leader  more  accurately  refiected  in  his 
troops.  Bonaparte  made  soldiers,  Wesley  made  active  Christians. 

The  last  principle  we  shall  notice  as  illustrated  by  Wesley’s 
career,  has  relation  to  the  nature  and  worh  of  the  ministry. 

A grand  discovery,  lying  very  near  the  root  of  Methodism, 
considered  as  an  ecclesiastical  system,  it  was  the  fortune  of 
John  Wesley  to  light  upon  not  far  from  the  outset  of  his 
career.  A discovery  quite  as  momentous  and  influential  in 
the  diffusion  and  perpetuation  of  his  opinions  as  that  with 
which  Luther  startled  the  world  in  1525.  Luther  published 
the  then  monstrous  heresy  that  ministers  who  are  married 
can  serve  the  Lord  and  his  Church  as  holily,  learnedly,  and 
acceptably,  as  celibate  priests  and  cloistered  regulars ; and  our 
hero  found  out  that  men  unqualified  by  university  education 
for  orders  in  the  Church  were  the  very  fittest  instruments  he 
could  employ  in  the  itinerant  work  of  early  Methodism. 
Bough  work  requires  rough  hands.  The  burly  pioneer  is  as 
needful  in  the  army  as  the  dapper  ensign,  and  the  hewer  of 
wood  in  the  deep  forest  as  the  French  polisher  in  the  city. 
How  this  was  a great  discovery — up  to  that  period  a thing 
unknown.  The  Boman  Church  knew  nothing  of  such  a de- 
vice ; its  orders  of  various  kinds  bore  no  approximation  to  it ; 
presbyter  and  bishop  were  at  equal  removes  from  it ; the  very 
Puritans  and  Hon-conformists  knew  nothing  of  it,  they  being 
in  their  way  as  great  sticklers  for  clerical  order  and  their 


206 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume, 


succession  as  any  existing  body — the  more  pardonable,  as  some 
were  living  in  the  early  part  of  Wesley’s  history  who  had  them- 
selves officiated  in  the  churches  of  the  Establishment.  His 
discovery  was,  that  plain  men  just  able  to  read  and  explain 
with  some  fluency  what  they  read  and  felt,  might  go  forth 
without  license  from  college,  or  presbytery,  or  bishop,  into 
any  parish  in  the  country — the  weaver  from  his  loom,  the 
shoemaker  from  his  stall — and  tell  their  fellow-sinners  of  salva- 
tion and  the  love  of  Christ.  This  was  a tremendous  innovation 
upon  the  established  order  of  things  every-where,  and  was  as 
reluctantly  forced  upon  so  starched  a precisian  as  John  Wes- 
ley, as  it  must  have  horrifled  the  members  of  the  stereotyped 
ministries  and  priesthoods  existing  around.  But  as  in  Luther’s 
case,  so  here — “ the  present  necessity  ” was  the  teacher : “ the 
fields  were  white  to  the  harvest,  and  the  laborers  were  few.” 
We  have  ample  evidence  to  show  that  if  he  could  have  pressed 
into  the  service  a sufficient  number  of  the  clerical  profession 
he  would  have  preferred  the  employment  of  such  agents  ex- 
clusively ; but  as  they  were  only  few  of  this  rank  who  lent 
him  their  constant  aid,  he  was  driven  to  adopt  the  measure 
which  was,  we  think,  the  salvation  of  his  system  and  in  some 
respects  its  glory. 

The  greater  part  of  the  clergy  would  have  been  unfitted  for 
the  work  he  would  have  allotted  them,  even  had  they  not  been 
hampered  by  the  trammels  of  ecclesiastical  usage.  This  usage 
properly  assigns  a fixed  portion  of  clerical  labor  to  one  person ; 
and  to  discharge  it  well  is  quite  enough  to  tax  the  powers  of 
most  men  to  the  utmost.  Few  parish  ministers,  how  conscien- 
tious and  diligent  soever,  will  ever  have  to  complain  of  too 
little  to  do.  But  Wesley  had  a roving  commission,  and  felt 
himseK  called,  by  his  strong  sense  of  the  need  of  some  extraor- 
dinary means,  to  awaken  the  sleeping  population  of  the  coun- 
t)’y,  to  overleap  the  barriers  of  clerical  courtesy  and  ecclesias- 
tical law,  invading  parish  after  parish  of  recusant  incumbents 
without  compunction  or  hesitancy  at  the  overweening  impulse  of 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


207 


duty.  However  much  some  clergymen  may  have  sympathized 
with  him  in  religious  opinion,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how 
many  natural  and  respectable  scruples  might  prevent  their 
following  such  a leader  in  his  Church  errantry.  They  must, 
in  fact,  have  broken  with  their  own  system  to  give  themselves 
to  his,  and  this  they  might  not  be  prepared  to  do.  They  might 
value  his  itinerating  plan  as  supplementary  to  the  localized 
labors  of  the  parish  minister,  but  at  the  same  time  demur  to  its 
taking  the  place  of  parochial  duty,  as  its  tendency  was  and  as  its 
effect  has  been.  Thus  was  Wesley  early  thrown  upon  a species 
of  agency  for  help  which  he  would  doubtless  sincerely  deplore 
at  first,  namely,  a very  slenderly  equipped  but  zealously  ardent 
and  fearless  laity;  but  which,  again,  his  after  experience  led 
him  to  value  at  its  proper  worth,  and  to  see  in  the  adaptation  of 
his  men  to  the  common  mind  their  highest  quahfication.  “ Fire 
low,”  is  said  to  have  been  his  frequent  charge  in  after  life  to 
young  ministers  ; a maxim  the  truth  of  which  was  confirmed  by 
the  years  of  an  unusually  protracted  ministry  and  acquaintance 
with  mankind.  A ministry  that  dealt  in  perfumed  handker- 
chiefs, and  felt  most  at  home  in  Bond-street  and  the  ball-room — 
the  perfumed  popinjays  of  their  profession ; or  one  that,  emu- 
lous of  the  fame  of  Himrod,  that  mighty  hunter  before  the 
Lord,  sacrificed  clerical  duty  to  the  sports  of  the  field,  prized 
the  reputation  of  securing  the  brush  before  that  of  being  a 
good  shepherd  of  the  sheep,  and  deemed  the  music  of  the 
Tally-ho  or  Hunting  Choras  infinitely  more  melodious  than  the 
Psalms  of  David;  or,  again,  one  composed  of  the  fastidious 
students  of  over-refined  sensibilities,  better  acquainted  with  the 
modes  of  thought  of  past  generations  than  with  the  actual 
habits  of  the  present,  dehcate  recluses  and  nervous  men,  the 
bats  of  society,  who  shrink  from  the  sunshine  of  busy  hfe 
into  the  congenial  twilight  of  their  libraries,  whose  over-edu- 
cated susceptibihties  would  prompt  the  strain — 

‘ ‘ 0 lift  me  as  a wave,  a leaf,  a cloud  ! 

I fall  upon  the  thorns  of  life,  I bleed  ! ” — 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


these  would  have  utterly  failed  for  the  work  John  Wesley 
wanted  them  to  do.  Ministers  from  the  higher  walks  of  life 
would  either  to  a great  degree  have  wanted  those  sympathies 
that  should  exist  between  the  shepherd  and  the  flock,  or  would 
have  yielded  before  the  rough  treatment  the  first  Methodist 
preachers  were  called  to  endure.  Although  the  reflnement  of 
a century  has  done  much  to  crush  the  coarser  forms  of  persecu- 
tion, it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  early  ministers  of  Meth- 
odism were  called  to  encounter  physical  quite  as  frequently  as 
logical  argumentation.  The  middle  terms  of  the  syllogisms 
they  were  treated  to  were  commonly  the  middle  of  the  horse- 
pond  and  their  sorites  the  dung-heap,  l^ow  the  plain  men 
whom  Wesley  was  so  fortunate  as  to  enlist  in  his  cause  were 
those  whose  habits  of  daily  life  and  undisputing  faith  in  the 
truth  of  their  system  qualified  to  “ endure  hardness  as  good 
soldiers.”  They  were  not  over-refined  for  intercourse  with  rude, 
common  people ; could  put  up  with  the  coarsest  fare  in  their 
mission  to  preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  to  the 
poorest  of  the  poor ; and  were  not  to  be  daunted  by  the  per- 
spective of  rotten  eggs  and  duckings,  of  brickbats  and  manda- 
muses, which  threatened  to  keep  effectually  in  abeyance  any 
temptation  to  incur  the  woe  when  all  men  should  speak  well 
of  them.  Hence  among  the  first  coadjutors  of  the  great  leader 
were  John  Helson,  a stone-mason ; Thomas  Olivers,  a shoe- 
maker; William  Hunter,  a farmer;  Alexander  Mather,  a 
baker;  Peter  Jaco,  a Cornish  fisherman;  and  Thomas  Hanby, 
a weaver. 

Thus  the  ministry  that  was  to  fasten  upon  the  people  was 
rightly  taken  from  among  the  people,  a point  never  to  be  lost 
sight  of  by  any  religious  body  aiming  at  popular  influence. 
In  the  same  proportion  as  the  teachers  are  selected  from  the 
aristocracy  or  the  middle  classes,  the  field  of  labor  will  be 
confined  to  those  classes,  and  the  poor  will,  by  a law  that  on 
the  broad  scale  admits  of  no  exceptions,  throw  themselves  into 
the  hands  of  persons  of  their  own  rank.  The  Church  militant 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


209 


must  never  forget  that  its  highest  mission  is  to  the  lowest,  and 
that  it  is  then  most  divine  when  it  can  most  confidently  aifirm, 
after  its  Master,  “ To  the  poor  the  gospel  is  preached ! ” Any 
Church  that  is,  to  an  observable  degree,  unsuitable  to  the  poor, 
disliked  by  the  poor,  and  deserted  by  the  poor,  has  failed  to 
the  same  degree  in  one  main  object  of  its  establishment,  and 
fails  to  the  same  degree  in  securing  the  blessing  of  the  God  of 
the  poor. 

Another  point  in  regard  to  the  ministry  to  which  Wesley 
gave  habitual  prominence,  was  the  duty  of  making  that  pro- 
fession a laborious  calling.  The  heart  and  soul  of  his  system, 
as  of  his  personal  ministry,  he  made  to  be  woke.  Work  was 
tlie  mainspring  of  his  Methodism — activity,  energy,  progression. 
From  the  least  to  the  largest  wheel  within  wheel  that  necessity 
created,  or  his  ingenuity  set  up,  all  turned,  wrought,  acted  in- 
cessantly, and  intelligently  too.  It  was  not  mere  machinery  ; 
it  was  full  of  eyes.  To  the  lowest  agent  of  Methodism — be  it 
collector,  contributor,  exhorter,  or  distributer  of  tracts — each 
has,  besides  the  faculty  of  constant  occupation,  the  ability  to 
render  a reason  for  what  he  does.  Work  and  wisdom  are  in 
happy  combination  ; at  least  such  was  the  purpose  of  the  con- 
triver, and  we  have  reason  to  believe  they  have  been  in  a fair 
proportion  secured.  And  the  labor  that  marks  the  lower,  marks 
pre-eminently  the  higher,  departments  of  the  system.  The 
ministry,  beyond  all  professions,  demands  labor.  He  that  seeks 
a cure  that  it  may  be  a sinecure,  or  a benefice  which  shall  be  a 
benefit  to  himself  alone — who  expects  to  find  the  ministry  a 
couch  of  repose  instead  of  a field  for  toil — a bread-winner 
rather  than  a soul-saver  by  means  of  painful  watchings,  fast- 
ings, toils,  and  prayers — has  utterly  mistaken  its  nature,  and  is 
unworthy  of  its  honor.  It  is  a stewardship,  a husbandry,  an 
edification,  a ward,  a warfare,  demanding  the  untiring  effort  of 
the  day  and  unslumbering  vigilance  of  the  night  to  fulfill  its 
duties  and  secure  its  rewards.  It  is  well  to  remember  that  the 
slothful  and  the  wicked  servant  are  conjoined  in  the  denuncia- 


210  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yoluaie. 

tion  of  the  indignant  Master : “ Thou  wicked  and  slothful 
servant ! ” 

Where  there  maybe  sufficient  lack  of  principle  to  prompt 
to  indolence  and  self-indulgence,  there  are  few  communions 
which  will  not  present  the  opportunity  to  the  sluggish  or  sen- 
sual minister.  But  the  Methodist  mode  of  ojjerations  is  better 
calculated  than  perhaps  almost  any  other  for  cheeking  human 
corruption  when  developing  itself  in  this  form.  The  ordinaiy 
amount  of  official  duty  required  of  the  traveling  preachers  is 
enough  to  keep  both  the  reluctant  and  the  willing  laborer  con- 
stantly employed. 

And  Mr.  Wesley  exacted  no  more  of  others  than  he  cheer- 
fully and  systematically  rendered  himself,  daily  labor,  even  to 
weariness,  being  the  habit  of  his  life.  A glance  at  his  employ- 
ments at  different  periods  of  his  career  wiU  dispel  the  mystery 
attending  the  marvelous  productiveness  of  his  pen,  and  multi- 
plicity of  his  labors,  but  only  to  heighten  our  respect  for  his 
industry,  perseverance,  and  conscientiousness.  The  sketch 
which  he  has  given  of  his  daily  labors  is  no  artist’s  sketch, 
hung  up  in  his  studio  as  a specimen  of  his  skill,  or  poet’s  por- 
trait, prefixed  to  doggerel  dithyrambs,  with  “eye  in  a fine 
frenzy  rolling,”  to  gratify  personal  vanity,  or  lure  love-sick 
misses ; but  the  grave,  unvarnished  report  of  a grave,  earnest 
man,  who  knew  there  was  little  to  commend  in  it,  for  in  doing 
his  utmost  he  only  did  what  was  his  duty  to  do.  Yet  was  he 
the  prince  of  missionaries,  however  humble  his  self-estimate 
might  be ; the  prime  apostle  of  Christendom  since  Luther ; his 
pre-eminent  example  too  likely  to  be  lost  sight  of  in  this  mis- 
sionary age,  when  the’  Church,  in  the  bustle  of  its  present  activ- 
ities, has  little  time  to  cherish  recollections  of  its  past  worthies, 
or  to  speculate  with  clearness  on  the  shapes  of  its  future  calling 
and  destiny.  But  in  one  sense  he  was  more  than  an  apostle. 
By  miracle  they  were  qualified  with  the  gift  of  tongues  for 
missions  to  men  of  strange  speech  ; but  Wesley  did  not  shrink 
fi’om  the  toil  of  acquiring  language  after  language,  in  order  to 


Ideas  Wesley  Developed. 


211 


speak  intelKgibly  on  the  subject  of  religion  to  foreigners. 
The  Italian  he  acquired  that  he  might  minister  to  a few  Yau- 
dois  ; the  German,  that  he  might  converse  with  the  Moravians ; 
and  the  Spanish,  for  the  benefit  of  some  Jews  among  his 
parishioners.  Such  rare  parts,  and  zeal,  and  perseverance, 
and  learning,  are  seldom  combined  in  any  Kving  man.  We 
have  never  seen  nor  heard  of  any  one  like  W esley  in  the  capac- 
ity and  liking  for  labor ; we  indulge,  therefore,  very  slender 
hopes  of  encountering  such  a one  in  the  remaining  space  of  our 
pilgrimage.  In  onr  sober  judgment  it  were  as  san«  to  expect  the 
buried  majesty  of  Denmark  to  revisit  the  glimpses  of  the  moon, 
as  hope  to  find  all  the  conditions  presented  in  John  Wesley 
to  show  themselves  again  in  England.  We  may  not  look  upon 
his  like  again. 

Unlike  many,  unlike  most  enduring  celebrities,  Wesley  was 
successful,  popular,  appreciated  during  his  life-time,  nor  had  to 
wait  for  posthumous  praise.  This  was,  doubtless,  owing  in  part 
to  the  practical  bent  his  genius  took,  which  was  calculated  to 
win  popular  regard,  as  well  as  to  the  unequaled  excellence  he 
displayed  in  the  Line  he  had  chosen.  The  man  who  was  known 
to  have  traveled  more  miles,  preached  more  sermons,  and  pub- 
lished more  books  than  any  traveler,  preacher,  author,  since  the 
days  of  the  apostles,  must  have  had  much  to  claim  the  admira- 
tion and  respect  of  his  contemporaries.  The  man  who  exhib- 
ited the  greatest  disinterestedness  all  his  life  through,  who  has 
exercised  the  widest  influence  on  the  religious  world,  who  has 
established  the  most  numerous  sect,  invented  the  most  efficient 
system  of  Church  polity,  who  has  compiled  the  best  book  of 
sacred  song,  and  who  has  thus  not  only  chosen  eminent  walks 
of  usefulness,  but  in  every  one  of  them  claims  the  first  place, 
deserves  to  be  regarded  by  them,  and  by  posterity,  as  no  com- 
mon man.  A greater  poet  may  arise  than  Homer  or  Milton  ; a 
greater  theologian  than  Calvin;  a greater  philosopher  than 
Bacon  or  Hewton ; a greater  dramatist  than  any  of  ancient  or 

modern  fame ; but  a more  distinguished  revivalist  of  the 
14 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Cliui’ches,  minister  of  the  sanctuary,  believer  of  the  truth,  and 
blessing  to  souls,  than  John  Wesley — never.  There  was  in  his 
consummate  nature  that  exquisite  balance  of  power  and  will, 
that  perfect  blending  of  the  moral,  intellectual,  and  physical, 
which  forms  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  ministerial  ability  and  serv- 
ice. In  the  firmament  in  which  he  was  lodged  he  shone  and 
shines  “ the  bright  particular  star,”  beyond  comparison,  as  he 
is  without  a rival. 


WESLEY’S  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  EELIGION 
OF  THE  WOELD. 


“They  glorified  God  in  me.” — Gal.  i,  24. 

EYERY  human  being  has  some  influence  on  others ; and  that 
influence  is  good  or  evil,  according  to  his  character ; feeble 
or  powerful,  according  to  his  position,  his  natural  talents,  or  his 
personal  efforts.  John  Wesley  had  high  principle,  genuine 
piety,  and  eminent  learning,  combined  with  unwearied  energy 
and  incessant  labors  during  a long  life ; and  his  influence  for 
good  on  his  contemporaries  and  on  posterity  must,  in  the  very 
nature  of  things,  be  proportionately  great  in  its  degree  and 
extent — so  great,  indeed,  that  no  human  mind  can  fully 
estimate  it.  His  influence  is  mainly  spiritual  in  its  nature, 
and,  therefore,  eternal  in  its  results ; and  hke  all  moral  and 
spiritual  causes  and  operations,  its  effects  stretch  into  infinity. 
We  cannot  tabulate  them;  figures  and  statistics,  however 
carefully  and  accurately  compiled,  cannot  afford  even  an  ap- 
proximate estimate  of  the  amount  of  spiritual  good  resulting 
from  the  life  and  labors  of  John  Wesley.  Yet  we  may  assert 
with  confidence  that  blessings  so  great  have  resulted  from  no 
other  life  since  apostolic  times. 

And  these  blessings  have  come  without  the . usual  alloy  of 
concomitant  or  consequent  evils.  Unlike  the  awful  struggles  of 
the  Protestant  Reformation,  Methodism  overthrew  no  thrones, 
called  forth  no  armies,  and  shed  no  blood,  because  it  evoked 
no  secular  power  to  maintain  its  authority,  to  defend  its  claims, 
or  promote  its  diffusion.  It  was  purely  a spiritual  work— a 
mission  of  love — and  it  depended  solely  on  the  God  of  love  for 
its  success.  True,  it  had  to  encounter  fierce  opposition;  re- 
proach and  scorn,  brickbats  and  blows,  were  often  profusely 


214  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

dealt  out  to  the  messengers  of  salvation,  and  some  of  them 
fell  martyrs  in  their  holy  and  benevolent  work;  but  they 
suffered,  like  their  blessed  Lord,  with  meekness  and  fortitude, 
not  counting  their  lives  dear  unto  themselves  so  that  they 
might  finish  their  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  they  had 
received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God. 

It  was  not  so  much  the  province  of  John  Wesley  and  his 
co-workers  to  recover  lost  truths,  as  to  vitalize  them ; to  ex- 
emplify, enforce,  and  diffuse  them,  by  their  life  and  ministry. 
The  great  doctrines  of  salvation  had  been  already  recovered 
by  the  Reformers  from  the  darkness  and  the  putrid  corruptions 
of  popery ; and  they  were  asserted  in  the  creeds  and  formu- 
laries of  Protestant  Churches ; but  they  had  become  buried 
and  fossilized  in  learned  folios,  and  throughout  Christendom 
they  had  few  living  witnesses.  Indeed,  the  experimental  doc- 
trines of  justification  by  faith  alone,  and  the  witness  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  were  generally  denied  in  the  pulpit,  though  pro- 
fessed in  the  formularies  of  the  Church ; and  not  only  denied, 
but  resisted  ; while  those  who  maintained  and  exemplified 
these  essential  truths  were  branded  as  visionaries,  as  deceivers, 
and  rejected  as  enemies  of  the  Church  of  God.  In  the  estab- 
lished Church  of  England  there  was  orthodoxy  in  the  articles, 
homilies,  and  liturgy,  but  formalism  and  antichristian  heresy 
in  the  pulpit.  There  were,  indeed,  instances  of  profound 
learning  and  exalted  talent,  but  so  equivocally  employed  as  at 
one  and  the  same  time  to  be  defending  the  evidences  of  re- 
ligion and  undermining  its  experimental  doctrines ; resisting 
the  arrogant  claims  of  popery,  yet  rebuilding  the  Arian  hy- 
pothesis and  asserting  Pelagian  errors.  While  the  doctrines  of 
the  Reformation  were  thus  disowned  and  dishonored  in  the 
English  Establishment,  the  Hon-conformist  Churches  had  be- 
come, in  numerous  instances,  corrupt  in  principle  and  degener- 
ate in  character.  In  many  Churches  predestinarian  decrees 
had  engendered  Antinomianism,  and  in  others  had  displaced 


Wesley’s  Influence  on  Religion. 


215 


the  saving  doctrines  of  the  cross.  Many  honorable  exceptions 
there  were,  as  we  see  in  the  character  of  Watts,  Doddridge, 
Seeker,  Leighton,  Berridge,  Adams,  Venn,  Romaine,  Perro- 
net,  Guyse,  Hnrrion,  and  other  pious  contemporaries,  who, 
like  the  weeping  prophet  of  Jndah,  sighed  over  the  broken 
walls  of  the  Church,  and  prayed  and  labored  for  the  restoration 
of  truth  and  holiness ; but  their  own  testimony,  also,  abun- 
dantly confirms  the  gloomy  representation  we  have  given  of 
those  days. 

The  amiable  Archbishop  Leighton  describes  the  Church  in 
his  day  as  “a  fair  carcass  without  spirit.”  Burnet,  in  1713, 
complains  that  “ the  clergy  were  under  more  contempt  than 
those  of  any  Church  in  Europe ; for  they  were  much  the  most 
remiss  in  their  labors  and  the  least  severe  in  their  lives  ; ” and 
he  goes  on  to  deplore  the  ignorance  as  well  as  the  immoral 
lives  of  the  clergy,  alleging  that  the  greater  part  of  those  who 
came  to  be  ordained  seem  “ never  to  have  read  the  Scriptures, 
and  many  could  not  give  a tolerable  account  even  of  the  Cate- 
chism  itself ; ” and,  further,  that  the  “ case  was  not  much  better 
with  many  who  got  into  orders,  as  they  could  not  make  it 
appear  that  they  had  read  the  Scriptures,  or  any  good  book, 
since  they  were  ordained.” 

Judge  Blackstone,  early  in  the  reign  of  George  the  Third, 
impressed  with  the  degenerate  condition  of  the  Established 
Church,  had  the  curiosity  to  go  to  hear  every  clergjunan  of 
note  in  London  ; and  he  states  that  he  “ heard  not  a single  ser- 
mon which  had  more  of  the  gospel  in  it  than  the  writings  of 
Cicero ; and  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  know,  from 
what  he  heard,  whether  the  preacher  was  a follower  of  Confu- 
cius, of  Mohammed,  or  of  Christ.”  “ Like  priest,  like  people ; ” 
for  it  was  a natural  consequence  that  ignorance,  indifference, 
and  immorality  in  the  clergy  should  produce  ignorance,  infi- 
delity, and  profligacy  among  the  people.  Archbishop  Seeker, 
in  1738,  thus  describes  the  state  of  the  nation:  “In  this  we 
cannot  be  mistaken,  that  an  open  and  professed  disregard  to 


216 


Tub  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


religion  is  become,  through  a variety  of  unhappy  causes,  the 
distinguishing  character  of  the  present  age ; that  this  evil  is 
grown  to  a great  height  in  the  metropolis  of  the  nation ; is 
daily  spreading  through  every  part  of  it ; and,  bad  in  itself  as 
any  can  be,  must  of  necessity  bring  in  all  others  with  it.  In- 
deed, it  hath  already  brought  in  such  dissoluteness  and  contempt 
of  principle  in  the  higher  part  of  the  world,  and  such  profli- 
gateness, intemperance,  and  fearlessness  in  committing  crimes 
in  the  lower,  as  must,  if  this  torrent  of  impiety  stop  not,  be- 
come absolutely  fatal.”  Similar  lainentations  over  the  deadness 
of  the  Church  and  the  profligacy,  infidelity,  and  contempt  of 
sacred  things  in  the  world,  were  expressed  by  Dr.  Guyse,  Dr. 
Watts,  and  many  others  ; and  this  state  of  things  is  thus 
summed  up  in  the  “Horth  British  Review”  for  August,  181Y : 

Never  has  a century  risen  on  Christian  England  so  void  of  soul  and 
faith  as  that  which  opened  with  Queen  Anne,  and  which  reached  its 
misty  noon  beneath  the  second  George — a dewless  night  succeeded  by  a 
sunless  dawn.  There  was  no  freshness  in  the  past,  and  no  promise  in 
the  future.  The  memory  of  Baxter  and  of  Usher  possessed  no  spell,  and 
calls  for  revival  and  reform  fell  dead  on  the  echo.  Confessions  of  sin, 
and  national  covenants,  and  all  projects  toward  a public  and  visible 
acknowledgment  of  the  Most  High,  were  voted  obsolete,  and,  in  the 
golden  dreams  of  Westminster,  worthies  only  lived  in  Hudibras.  The 
Puritans  were  buried,  and  the  Methodists  were  not  born.  . . . The  reign 
of  buffoonery  was  past,  but  the  reign  of  faith  and  earnestness  had  not 
commenced.  During  the  first  forty  years  of  that  century,  the  eye  that 
seeks  for  spiritual  life  can  hardly  find  it;  least  of  all,  that  hopeful  and 
diffusive  life  which  is  the  harbinger  of  more.  Bishop  Butler  observes: 
“It  was  taken  for  granted  that  Christianity  was  not  so  much  as  a subject 
for  inquiry,  but  was  at  length  discovered  to  be  fictitious.  And  men 
treated  it  as  if  this  were  an  agreed  point  among  all  people  of  discern- 
ment.” 

Had  not  the  providence  of  God  interposed  at  this  crisis,  the  darkness 
must  have  deepened,  the  depravity  gathered  strength,  and  the  state  and 
character  of  the  nation  have  degenerated  to  the  worst  degree ; causing 
it  to  assume,  long  ere  this,  a mixed  complexion  of  heathenism,  infidelity, 
c.rid  profligacy,  such  as  is  revolting  to  contemplate.  Events  of  a subse- 


"Wesley’s  Influence  on  Keligion. 


217 


qucnt  date  would  have  aggravated  existing  evils,  and  given  force  and 
activity  to  the  most  malignant  and  pernicious  influences.  The  princi- 
ples and  example  of  the  French  nation;  the  infidel  metaphysics  of 
Hume,  and  the  atheistic  philosophy  of  Mirabaud,  Diderot,  etc. ; the 
insidious  skepticism  of  Gibbon,  couched  in  elegant  diction,  and  blended 
with  an  attractive  theme ; the  profane  wit  of  Voltaire,  and  the  coarse 
ribaldry  of  Paine  ; the  semi-deism  of  Priestley,  with  that  of  Belsham  and 
Lindsay,  and  their  coadjutors  of  the  low  Socinian  school;  the  numerous 
equivocal  lecturers  on  scientific  subjects,  investing  nature  with  self-act- 
ing and  independent  powers,  to  the  exclusion  of  God’s  presiding  and 
active  agency  ; and  the  multitudinous  skeptical  publications,  some  elab- 
orate, and  others  light  and  ephemeral,  which  since  that  day  have  con- 
tinued to  swarm  from  the  press,  would  doubtless,  without  the  counter- 
acting agency  of  a powerful  revival  of  experimental  and  practical 
religion — without  such  a revival  as  that  exhibited  in  Methodisnr — have 
combined  to  corrupt  the  principles  and  deprave  the  character  of  the 
nation,  until  the  measure  of  its  iniquity  was  full  to  the  very  brim,  and 
the  land  had  become  reprobate — blighted  and  accursed  by  its  own  enor- 
mities, and  scathed  and  rejected  of  God.  This  awful  doom,  however, 
was  averted,  and  that  revival  of  religion  denominated  Methodism  was 
the  principal,  though  not  the  only,  means  at  once  of  saving  the  country 
from  so  great  a calamity,  and  of  introducing  the  brightest  era  in  British 
history.  . 

Wliile  these  humiliating  confessions  reveal  the  degenerate 
state  of  the  Church  in  general,  and  show  the  need  of  a refor- 
mation, they  show  also,  as  by  a foil,  the  wonderful  influence 
which  the  Wesleys,  Whitefleld,  and  other  holy  men  must  have 
had  in  encountering  existing  evils,  and  bringing  about  the 
great  revival  which  crowned  their  abundant  labors. 

God  had,  indeed,  been  preparing  the  Church  in  divers  places 
for  the  needed  reformation  just  before  those  eminent  men  ap- 
peared actively  in  the  fleld  of  labor.  It  shows  the  divine  ori- 
gin of  this  movement,  that  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  just  when  the  Wesleys  and  their  little  band  of 
pious  confreres  at  Oxford  were  struggling  against  their  sins, 
and  anxiously  though  ignorantly  striving  after  salvation  by 
penances,  mortiflcations,  and  good  works,  gracious  revivals  had 
begun  almost  simultaneously  in  different  and  distant  parts  of 


218 


Tiee  Wesley  Memoeial  Volxjme. 


the  world,  and  that  without  any  connection  with  or  depend- 
ence upon  each  other.  Thus  the  Moravian  Church  at  Herrn- 
hutt,  in  Lusatia,  after  enduring  severe  and  protracted  suffer- 
ings in  tlie  very  spirit  of  martyrdom,,  had  been  visited  with 
power  from  on  high,  and  become  fired  with  missionary  ardor. 
In  various  parts  of  Hew  England,  under  the  evangelical  minis- 
try of  Jonathan  Edwards,  hundreds  had  become  converted,  and 
primitive  earnestness  was  excited  in  the  Churches.  In  the 
principality  of  W ales,  under  the  powerful  preaching  of  Howell 
Harris,  though  a layman,  thousands  had  been  brought  to  God 
and  numerous  Churches  planted,  consisting  of  converts  who 
had  lived  previously  in  the  darkest  ignorance,  and  in  all  man- 
ner of  ungodliness  and  profanity.  Proceeding  from  the  same 
gracious  influence,  a remarkable  revival  was  experienced  a few 
years  afterward  in  various  parts  of  Scotland,  under  the  simple 
but  fervent  ministry  of  the  Rev.  James  Robe.  These  several 
instances  of  gracious  influence  and  power  in  different  hemi- 
spheres at  the  same  time  had  commenced  without  any  human 
connection  or  mutual  plan  of  co-operation.  They  were  sepa- 
rately originated  by  that  blessed  Spirit  who  worketh  as  he  will, 
and  where  he  will ; though  doubtless  in  answer  to  the  prayers 
of  his  people,  and  in  the  use  of  scriptural  means.  There  had 
been  a few  praying  people  in  each  place  and  country,  who, 
unknown  to  each  other,  had  been  sighing  and  crying  over  the 
abominations  of  the  land,  and  pleading  with  God  for  the  out- 
pouring of  his  Spirit  upon  the  moral  deserts  around  them. 
And  now  God  was  preparing  the  Wesleys  themselves  for  the 
great  work  which  he  intended  them  to  do. 

John  and  Charles  Wesley,  accompanied  by  some  German 
ministers,  embarked  for  America  October  14,  1Y35,  and  landed 
at  Savannah  February  5,  1736.  The  two  brothers  went  as  mis- 
sionaries, but  failed  in  this  special  work,  mainly  because  they 
themselves  needed  a fuller  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  and 
doubtless  God  designed  their  appointed  fleld  of  labor  to  be  in 
another  hemisphere.  Charles  returned  to  England  July  26, 


Wesley’s  Ineltjence  on  Religion. 


219 


1736,  after  spending  little  more  than  five  months  in  Georgia. 
John  embarked  for  England  December  22,  1737,  having  spent 
less  than  two  years  in  America,  and  landed  at  Deal  February  1, 
1738.  The  two  brothers  returned  wiser  but  sadder  men;  their 
experience  and  their  intercourse  with  the  Moravian  brethren 
having  taught  them  that  there  were  blessings  of  richer  enjoy- 
ment by  which  they  would  be  better  qualified,  as  ministers  of 
Christ,  for  the  great  work  which  lay  before  them.  There  was 
now  no  rest  for  the  souls  of  these  devout  men.  They  read, 
they  prayed,  and  they  inquired  after  the  more  perfect  way. 
They  received  fresh  light  from  the  instructions  of  Peter 
Bohler,  and  the  testimony  and  experience  of  living  witnesses, 
as  to  the  blessing  of  a full  assurance  of  personal  acceptance  by 
simple  faith  in  Christ.  They  earnestly  sought,  and  they  found 
the  blessing : Charles  on  the  21st  of  May,  1738,  and  John  on 
the  21:th  of  the  same  month.  George  Whitefield  had  obtained 
it  before  the  Wesleys  returned  from  America. 

’ These  holy  men,  having  received  the  spirit  of  adoption,  went 
on  their  way  rejoicing.  If  a cloud  at  any  time  obscured  their 
prospects  or  damped  their  joy,  it  was  soon  dispelled  by  faith  in 
Christ,  and  they  grew  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  God 
their  Saviour.  Having  themselves  believed,  they,  spoke  ; they 
could  not  hide  the  sacred  treasure  they  had  found.  The  love 
of  Christ  constrained  them  ; their  souls  burned  with  celestial 
ardor,  and  they  went  forth  wherever  Providence  called  them, 
declaring  the  grace  of  God  to  their  fellow-men,  and  offering  to 
them  the  blessings  of  a free  and  present  salvation  by  simple 
faith  in  Christ. 

Soon  the  doors  of  the  Estabhshed  Church  were  closed  against 
them ; but  when  pent-up  walls  were  forbidden  to  these  messen- 
gers of  mercy,  they  took  to  the  apostolic  method  of  preaching 
in  the  open  air.  Whitefield  began  this  Christ-hke  mode  of 
preacliing  February  17,  1739 ; John  Wesley  followed  April  2, 
only  six  weeks  after ; the  zeal  of  Charles  rose  above  his  Church 
prejudices,  and  he  proclaimed  the  Gospel  in  the  open  air,  May 


220 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volusie. 


29t]i  of  the  same  year.  ISTow  the  wide  door  of  the  universe 
was  open,  and  gave  them  boundless  scope  among  the  milhons 
of  our  race,  and  ready  access  to  the  outcasts  of  men — the  neg- 
lected and  forgotten  of  mankind.  The  colliers  assembled  at 
Kingswood  and  Newcastle-on-Tyne ; and  crowds  of  poor  and 
rich,  of  high  and  low,  in  Moorfields  and  on  Blackheath  Com- 
mon ; and  soon  in  every  part  of  England  the  long  neglected  and 
left  to  perish  had  the  gospel  carried  to  them  by  these  messengers 
of  mercy,  and  multitudes  were  awakened  and  saved.  Masses  of 
men  and  women  amounting  to  ten  thousand,  twenty  thousand, 
yea,  fifty,Land  as  some  have  computed,  even  sixty  thousand  were 
drawn  together  to  hear  these  apostles  of  mercy,  and  the  word 
was  with  power ; Whitefield  preaching  with  the  glowing  ardor 
of  a seraph,  and  the  Wesleys  with  the  clearness,  calmness,  and 
earnestness  of  the  apostles.  Mighty  signs  and  wonders  fol- 
lowed, for  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  with  them,  and  the  Spirit 
was  poui  ^d  out  from  on  high. 

Whitefield  traversed  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  for 
thirty-four  years,  and  crossed  the  Atlantic  thirteen  times,  pro- 
claiming the  love  of  God  and  his  great  gift  to  manldnd.  A 
bright  and  exulting  view  of  the  atonement’s  sufficiency  was  his 
theology ; delight  in  God,  and  joy  in  Christ  Jesus,  were  the 
essence  of  his  religion ; and  a compassionate  solicitude  for  the 
souls  of  men,  often  rising  to  a fearful  agony,  was  his  ruhng 
passion : and  strong  in  the  oneness  of  his  aim,  and  the  intensity 
of  his  feelings,  he  soon  burst  the  regular  bounds,  and  preached 
the  Saviour  on  commons  and  village  greens,  and  even  to  the 
rabble  at  London  fairs.  Lie  was  the  prince  of  English  preachers. 
Many  have  surpassed  him  as  sermon  makers,  but  none  have 
approached  him  as  a pulpit  orator.  Many  have  outshone  him 
in  the  clearness  of  their  logic,  the  grandeur  of  their  conceptions, 
and  the  sparkling  beauty  of  single  sentences ; but  in  the  power 
of  darting  the  gospel  direct  into  the  conscience  he  eclipsed 
them  all.  With  a full  and  beaming  coiintenance,  and  the  frank 
and  easy  port  which  the  Enghsh  people  love — for  it  is  the 


Wesley’s  Ikeleence  on  Keligton.  221 


symbol  of  honest  purpose  and  friendly  assurance — be  combined 
a voice  of  rich  compass,  which  could  equally  thriU  over  Moor- 
fields  in  musical  thunder,  or  whisper  its  terrible  secret  in  every 
private  ear ; and  to  this  gainly  aspect  and  tuneful  voice  he 
added  a most  expressive  and  eloquent  action.  But  the  glory 
of  "Whitefield’s  preaching  was  its  heart-kindled  and  heart-melt- 
ing gospel.  Blit  for  this,  all  his  bold  strokes  and  brilhant  sur- 
prises might  have  been  no  better  than  the  rhetorical  triumphs 
of  Kirwin  and  other  pulpit  dramatists.  He  was  an  orator,  but 
only  sought  to  be  an  evangehst.  Like  a volcano  where  gold 
and  gems  may  be  darted  forth  as  well  as  common  th  ags,  but 
where  gold  and  molten  granite  fiow  all  alike  in  fiery  fusion, 
bright  thoughts  and  splendid  images  might  be  projected  from 
his  flaming  pulpit,  but  all  were  merged  in  the  stream  which 
bore  along  the  Gospel  and  himself  in  blended  fervor.  Indeed, 
so  simple  was  his  nature,  that  glory  to  God  and  good-will,  to 
man  having  fiUed  it,  there  was  room  for  httle  more.  Having 
no  Church  to  found,  no  family  to  enrich,  and  no  memory  to 
immortalize,  he  was  the  mere  embassador  of  God;  an  ins23ired 
with  the  genial  spirit  of  his  embassy,  so  full  of  Heaven  recon- 
ciled and  humanity  restored,  he  soon  himseK  became  a living 
gospel.  Radiant  with  its  benignity,  and  trembling  with  its 
tenderness,  by  a sort  of  spiritual  induction  a vast  audience 
would  speedily  be  brought  into  a frame  of  mind  the  transfu- 
sion of  his  own ; and  the  white  furrows  on  their  sooty  faces 
told  that  Kingswood  colliers  were  weeping,  or  the  quivering 
of  an  ostrich  plume  bespoke  its  elegant  wearer’s  deep  emotion. 
And  coming  to  his  work  direct  from  communion  with  his 
Master,  and  in  all  the  strength  of  accepted  prayer,  there  was 
an  elevation  in  his  mien  which  often  paralyzed  hostility,  and  a 
self-possession  which  only  made  him  amid  uproar  and  fury  the 
more  sublime.  With  an  electric  bolt  he  woidd  bring  the  jester 
in  his  fools  cap  from  his  perch  on  the  tree,  or  galvanize  the 
brickbat  from  the  skulking  miscreant’s  grasp,  or  sweep  down 
in  crouching  submission  and  shamefaced  silence  the  whole  of 


222 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


Bartholomew  fair ; while  a revealing  flash  of  sententious  doc- 
trine or  verified  Scripture  would  disclose  to  awe-struck  hun- 
dreds the  forgotten  verities  of  another  world,  or  the  unsus- 
pected arcana  of  their  inner  man.  “ I came  to  break  your 
head,  but  through  you  God  has  broken  my  heart,”  was  a sort 
of  confession  with  which  he  was  familiar. 

John  Wesley,  with  less  of  the  scathing  lightning  and  alarm- 
ing thunder  in  his  eloquence,  had  a lucid  precision  in  his  teach- 
ing, an  activity  in  his  movements,  and  a dexterity  in  manage- 
ment, never  equaled,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  man.  Both 
were  equally  faithful  and  heart-searching,  both  abundant  in 
evangelical  labors,  energetic  in  character,  and  steady  in  their 
aim  to  glorify  God.  Charles  Wesley,  though  from  physical 
debility  and  tamer  spirit  less  adapted  for  leading  the  way  in 
the  great  movement,  was  yet  an  excellent  co-worker  for  a sub- 
ordinate position,  while  his  admirable  genius  struck  the  poetic 
lyre,  and  embodied  in  soft  and  harmonious  numbers  the  glow- 
ing spirit  of  the  revival. 

Such  were  the  master  spirits  whom  God  raised  up,  and  so 
eminently  qualified  with  gifts  natural  and  divine,  for  that 
extraordinary  work  to  which  they  were  called,  the  blessed 
effects  of  which  we  enjoy  at  this  day.  Never  were  sanctified 
minds  more  fitted  for  co-operation : the  one  was  a complement 
to  the  other’s  deficiency,  and  their  united  qualities  formed  an 
agency  of  the  most  perfect  combination.  Thus,  one  in  object 
and  heart,  and  so  adapted  for  conjoint  usefulness,  the  Christian 
mind  cannot  but  deplore  that  diversity  of  sentiment  on  some 
minor  points  should  have  led  to  separation.  But  Whitefield 
embraced  the  doctrine  of  absolute  predestination,  and  Mr.  John 
Wesley,  fearing  its  tendency  to  produce  antinomianism,  pub- 
lished a sermon  against  that  doctrine,  which  gave  offense  to 
Mr.  Whitefield,  and  led  to  separation  and  temporary  estrange- 
ment. This  took  place  in  1743,  about  five  years  after  Mr. 
Wesley’s  conversion ; but  a reconciliation  was  effected  in  1750 ; 
so  that  although  their  societies  remained  distinct,  they  preached 


Wesley’s  Influence  on  Keligion. 


223 


in  eacli  others’  chapels,  and  their  hearts  were  cemented  with 
true  Christian  affection.  As  an  evidence  of  this,  Whitefield 
added  the  following  codicil  to  his  will : “ I also  leave  a mourn- 
ing ring  to  my  honored  and  dear  friends,  the  Revs.  John  and 
Charles  Wesley,  in  token  of  my  indissoluble  union  in  heart  and 
Christian  affection,  notwithstanding  our  difference  in  judgment 
on  some  particular  points  of  doctrine.” 

Mr.  Whitefield  died  at  hTewburyport,  in  'New  England,  U.  S. 
of  America,  on  the  30th  of  September,  1770.  He  died  in  the 
very  midst  of  his  labors,  and  in  a state  of  utter  exhaustion,  a 
martyr  to  his  irrepressible  zeal,  leaving  behind  him  the  im- 
perishable odor  of  his  saintly  character,  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  living  voices  to  bless  God  that  ever  he  was  born. 

Wesley,  with  equal  zeal  but  less  excitement,  was  spared  to 
continue  his  apostolic  labors  until  he  had  attained  his  eighty- 
eighth  year ; and  then  the  wheels  of  nature,  worn  out  with 
incessant  and  long-continued  toil,  gently  relaxed  until  they 
stood  still.  He  preached  within  nine  days  of  his  death.  With- 
out pain  and  "without  fear  he  sang  as  he  neared  the  eternal 
world — 

“ I’ll  praise  my  Maker  -while  I’ve  breath, 

And  "when  my  voice  is  lost  in  death,  ” 

and  on  the  very  night  of  his  exit  he  repeated,  scores  of  times, 
the  first  words  of  the  hymn  : “ I’ll  praise,  I’ll  praise.”  Unable 
to  say  more  except  the  word  “ farewell,”  he  expired  March  2, 
1791,  and  was  interred  behind  City  Road  Chapel,  London. 
His  brother  Charles  died  three  years  before,  on  March  29, 1788, 
and  it  is  a remarkable  coincidence  that  at  the  very  moment 
when  Charles  died,  his  brother  John  and  his  congregation  in 
Shropshire  were  engaged  in  singing  Charles  Wesley’s  hymn, 

“ Come,  let  us  join  our  friends  above 
That  have  obtained  the  prize,”  etc. 

In  trying  to  estimate  the  influence  of  Wesley  on  the  Chris- 
tian world  we  must  first  notice  lus  own  Church  as  a part,  and 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


now  no  small  part,  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  As  the  result  of 
God’s  blessing  on  his  genuine  Christian  experience,  the  sterling 
excellence  and  benevolence  of  his  character,  and  his  abundant 
labors,  many  thousands  were  converted  to  God,  and  became 
inspired  with  a spirit  like  his  own.  Among  these  were  many 
w’ho,  like  John  Nelson,  Thomas  Walsh,  and  others,  were  them- 
selves constrained  to  preach,  and  to  preach,  (with  less  polish 
and  ability  indeed,)  but  with  an  earnestness  hardly  less  intense 
than  his  own.  As  the  result,  thousands  more  were  converted 
to  God.  Laborers  being  raised  up  as  they  were  needed,  the 
work  spread  until  it  prevailed  to  a wonderful  degree,  and  ex- 
tended to  the  regions  beyond. 

In  the  year  1785,  March  24,  Wesley  records  in  his  journal  a 
brief  review  of  the  marvelous  work  of  God  in  the  following  sim- 
ple, but  graphic  words  : “ I was  now  considering  how  strangely 
the  grain  of  mustard  seed,  planted  about  fifty  years  ago,  has 
grown  up.  It  has  spread  through  all  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land ; the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  the  Isle  of  Man ; then  to  America, 
from  the  Leeward  Islands,  through  the  whole  Continent,  into 
Canada  and  Newfoundland.  And  the  Societies,  in  all  these 
parts,  walk  by  one  rule,  knowing  religion  is  holy  tempers ; and 
striving  to  worship  God,  not  in  form  only,  but  likewise  Gn 
spirit  and  in  truth.’  ” This  gratified  review  of  the  progress  of 
God’s  work  was  recorded  by  Wesley  six  years  before  his  death. 
But  in  the  meantime  “the  grain  of  mustard  seed”  was  still 
multiplying ; and  when  his  happy  spirit  was  called  to  its  re- 
ward, the  actual  number  enrolled  as  members  under  the 
organization  of  Methodism  was  140,000  members,  supplied  by 
650  itinerant  preachers.  Wonderful  growth ! But,  looking  at 
the  wonderful  extent  of  Methodism  now,  (1878,)  eighty-eight 
years  since  Wesley’s  death,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  far  wider 
growth,  and  fructifying  power  of  “the  grain  of  mustard 
seed  ? ” It  has  flourished  in  every  quarter  of  the  world,  and 
its  blessings  of  free  salvation  are  expressed  in  languages  spoken 
by  many  nations  of  the  earth,  numbering  within  its  com- 


Wesley’s  Influence  on  Religion.  225 

prehensive  pale,  according  to  Dr.  Tefft’s  computation,  (wliicli 
gives  tlie  latest  statistics,  and  includes  the  various  offshoots  of 
Methodism,)  the  astounding  number  of  50,000  preachers, 
(local  and  itinerant,)  8,000,000  communicants,  and  12,000,000 
of  hearers.  And  if  we  include  the  Sunday  scholars,  as  we 
must  do  in  order  to  ai’rive  at  a full  and  faithful  estimate  of 
Methodism,  the  computation  of  Dr.  Tefft  is  not  an  exaggeration. 
Here,  then,  taking  the  world’s  population  at  1,200,000,000,  is  a 
ratio  of  one  person  to  every  sixty  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
either  actually  enrolled  as  members  of  the  Methodist  Churches 
or  under  the  influence  of  the  Methodist  ministry ! Such  a result 
in  one  hundred  and  forty  years  may  well  excite  wonder,  grati- 
tude, and  praise.  But,  if  from  earth  we  lift  our  eyes  to  heaven, 
how  many  millions  of  happy  glorifled  spirits  are  there  at  this  mo- 
ment, gathered  through  the  agency  of  Methodism  from  all  parts 
of  the  world,  around  the  throne  of  God,  blessing  and  praising 
him  that  they  were  rescued  from  eternal  perdition  and  brought 
to  the  joys  of  salvation!  We  are  overpowered — we  are  lost 
in  wondering  contemplation  of  the  vast  multitudes  that  crowd 
upon  our  vision ! Hot  unto  us,  not  unto  man,  but  unto  God 
be  all  the  glory ! He  hath  done  it.  “ This  is  the  Lord’s  doing ; 
it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes.”  “ His  right  hand,  and  holy  arm, 
hath  gotten  him  the  victory.”  Blessed  be  his  glorious  name 
forever ; yea,  let  all  on  earth  and  in  heaven  praise  him  for 
ever  and  ever.  Amen. 

Yet  the  vast  numbers  which  constitute  the  Methodist  Churches 
on  earth  and  in  heaven,  could  we  count  them  all,  and  place  the 
entire  aggregate  in  flgures  under  our  eye,  would  not  adequately 
nor  nearly  represent  the  influence  of  Methodism.  Other 
Churches  have  been  quickened  into  new  life  by  the  reflex  influ- 
ence of  Wesley’s  piety,  and  the  grand  doctrine  of  a present 
and  full  salvation;  other  Churches  have  been  aroused  from 
lethargic  slumbers  into  activity  and  enterprise  by  the  example 
of  Wesley’s  numerous  and  incessant  labors;  other  Churches 
have  been  excited  to  benevolence  by  Wesley’s  self-denying  and 


226 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


boundless  liberality.  It  was  not  possible  for  a man  denying 
bimself,  and  giving  and  expending  all  bis  income,  sometimes 
to  the  extent  of  £1,000  a year  in  works  of  beneficence — 
rising  at  four  o’clock,  and  preaching  two,  three,  or  even  four 
times  a day — traveling  at  a time  when  railways  were  not  yet 
thought  of,  at  the  rate  of  four  or  five  thousand  miles  every 
year,  and  amid  all  these  labors  writing  numerous  books,  visit- 
ing prisons  and  hospitals,  managing  the  affaii’s  of  numerous 
Societies  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  maintaining  a 
correspondence  extending  over  the  world — I say  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  a man  to  do  these  things,  and  not  exert  a powerful 
infiuence  upon  thoughtful  minds  in  other  Churches.  Wesley 
was,  as  Robert  Hall  quaintly  said,  “ The  quiescense  of  turbu- 
lence ; calm  himself  while  setting  in  motion  all  around  him.” 
The  Churches  of  Britain  and  America  saw  his  wonderful 
activity,  and  were  amazed ; they  ‘beheld  the  spiritual  results, 
and  became  excited ; some  to  emulation,  some  to  envy,  and 
some  to  imitation,  provoked  by  his  example  to  love  and  good 
works.  There  was  life  in  Methodism : life  in  its  doctrines,  life 
in  its  ministry,  life  in  its  singing,  life  in  its  prayer-meetings, 
and  the  spirit  of  life  and  power  was  in  all  its  efforts.  Other 
Churches  saw  this,  and  awoke  to  new  life  themselves,  and  thus 
the  reflex  influence  of  Wesley’s  benevolent  and  zealous  labors 
ramified  and  extended  in  various  ways,  far  beyond  the  range 
of  his  direct  and  personal  efforts. 

Moreover,  in  the  open  air  services  held  by  the  Wesleys  and 
Whitefield  for  so  many  years,  great  numbers  of  persons  of  all 
ranks  in  society,  and  worshipers  in  all  other  denominations, 
were  awakened  and  saved,  whose  names  were  never  enrolled 
among  the  Methodists ; but  who,  from  domestic  ties  and  other 
influences  remained  in  their  own  Churches,  and  there  lighted 
up  the  fires  of  piety  and  zeal.  Many  persons,  too,  from  vari- 
ous causes,  left  the  Methodist  Societies  from  time  to  time,  and 
joined  other  Churches,  and  helped  to  leaven  them  with  evan- 
gelical truth,  and  inspire  them  with  spiritual  life.  These  in- 


Wesley’s  Influence  on  Keligion.  227 

stances  were  Tery  numerous  ; we  cannot  tabulate  them,  but  tliey 
were^and  even  yet  are,  of  frequent  occurrence,  and  in  tbeir 
aggregate  amount  to  tens  of  thousands ; and  among  them  hun- 
dreds of  circuit  and  lay  preachers  who  became  settled  pastors 
over  ISTon-conformist  congregations,  or  were  ordained  as  minis- 
ters in  the  Established  Church.  Many,  indeed,  were  driven  to 
this  resort  by  the  pressure  of  want ; for  in  the  early  days  of 
Methodism  there  was  little  or  no  provision  made  for  the  sup- 
port of  married  men  and  their  families,  and,  therefore,  gaunt 
privation  compelled  many  to  seek  a sphere  of  usefulness  where 
a comfortable  subsistence  could  be  found.  We  mention  these 
facts,  not  in  the  spirit  of  envy  or  complaint,  but  to  indicate  the 
wide-spread  and  multifarious  ways  in  which  the  vital  influence 
of  Methodism  penetrated  other  Churches,  and  extended  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  fact  is  patent  to  all,  and  universally 
admitted,  that  with  the  labors  of  the  Wesleys  and  their  coad- 
jutors there  was  a waking  up  in  the  Churches  which  has  con- 
thiued  to  this  day.  A sentiment  this,  sustained  by  the  memor- 
able verdict  of  Sir  Lancelot  Shadwell,  delivered  by  him  in  the 
exercise  of  his  judicial  functions  as  the  vice  chancellor  of  En- 
gland, and  thus  expressed : “It  is  my  firm  belief  that  to  the 
Wesleyan  body  we  are  indebted  for  a large  portion  of  the  relig- 
ious feeling  which  exists  among  the  general  body  of  the  com- 
munity, not  only  of  this  country,  but  throughout  a great  portion 
of  the  civilized  world  besides.” 

The  gracious  revival  of  religion  under  Wesley,  while  giving 
a scriptural  prominence  to  the  great  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  separated  it  from  the  deformity  of  Antinomianism,  and 
every  species  of  doctrinal  fatalism.  It  divested  Christianity 
from  the  reproach  of  a limited  atonement,  and  the  terrors  of 
absolute  and  unavoidable  reprobation.  It  presented  the  Gospel 
in  its  virgin  purity,  its  celestial  benignity  and  loveliness,  as  it 
shone  forth  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  and  in  the  apostolic  times 
of  refreshing,  when  thousands  in  a day  were  added  to  the 

Church.  True,  it  spared  not  its  terrible  denunciations  against 
15 


228 


The  Wesley  Mei^okial  Volume. 


the  impenitent  sinner ; it  thundered  aloud,  as  from  the  fiery 
summit  of  Sinai,  the  terrors  of  the  Lord ; but  it  proclaimed, 
“ in  strains  as  sweet  as  angels  use,”  the  efficacy  of  a universal 
atonement,  and  the  boundless  mercy  of  God  toward  every  con- 
trite soul.  It  discarded  all  the  “ifs”  and  “huts  ” and  “special 
reservation,”  by  which  Augustine  and  Calvin  had  fettered  the 
promises,  restricted  the  efficacy  of  grace,  and  chafed  the  anx- 
ious soul  in  its  struggles  for  mercy.  It  showed  the  sinner  there 
was  no  irresistible  decree  frowning  him  from  the  presence  of 
his  Saviour ; that  the  only  obstacle  or  hinderance  was  in  the  sin- 
ner himself,  and  that  the  moment  he  renounced  his  hostile 
weapons,  and  placed  his  dependence  on  Christ  as  his  Saviour, 
that  moment  he  was  justified  and  accepted  of  God.  These 
gracious  doctrines,  with  the  necessity  of  personal  holiness  and 
obedience  as  the  fruits  and  evidence  of  a living  faith,  were 
enforced  by  the  ministry  and  exemplified  in  the  lives  of  Wesley 
and  his  associates  in  the  work  of  God.  Their  influence  was 
soon  seen  in  the  Churches  around,  and  still  continues  to  be 
seen.  The  preaching  of  the  Calvinistic  school  became  greatly 
modified,  and  the  pulpit  generally  began  to  savor  more  of  prac- 
tical and  saving  truth  than  of  stale  speculations  about  fore- 
knowledge and  absolute  decrees.  This  change  has  continued 
to  gain  ascendency,  and  now  high  Calvinism  may  be  regarded 
as  becoming  obsolete  and  dying  out ; and  the  affectionate  offers 
of  mercy  and  earnest  injunctions  to  personal  holiness  have 
happily  taken  the  place  of  harsh  and  ascetic  dogmas.  In  this 
change  we  heartily  rejoice,  as  an  approximation  to  primitive 
Christianity,  and  an  auspicious  omen  to  the  general  interests 
of  religion. 

Yet  while  these  views  of  sacred  truth  were  conscientiously 
held  and  strenuously  maintained  by  John  Wesley,  he  was  no 
harsh  dogmatist,  no  exclusive  bigot.  He  held  the  truth  in 
love.  His  heart,  his  hand,  and  his  purse  were  open  to  men 
of  all  creeds  and  professions;  and  had  he  been  alive  at  this 
day  he  would  have  rejoiced  in  the  growing  unity  of  the 


Wesley’s  iKELUEisrcE  on  Religion. 


229 


Cliiirches.  as  his  writings  and  his  life  were  consecrated  to  its 
proniotion. 

Many  useful  and  invaluable  institutions,  essential,  almost,  to 
the  universal  diffusion  of  the  gospel  and  the  completion  of  the 
triumph  over  ignorance  and  sin,  date  their  origin  in  the  re- 
vival of  religion  under  Wesley  and  Whitefield;  and  some  of 
\ them  may  be  traced  directly  to  Methodistic  agency. 

Sunday-Schools. — It  is  a common  opinion  that  these  heaven- 
blest  institutions  owe  their  origin  to  Robert  Raikes,  of  Glou- 
cester. All  honor  to  his  name  for  his  pious  and  philanthropic 
labors ; but,  in  truth,  he  was  not  the  originator  of  Sabbath- 
schools.  Bishop  Stevens,  in  his  “ History  of  Georgia,”  tells  us 
that  John  Wesley  had  a Sabbath-school  at  Savannah  during 
the  time  that  he  was  minister  there ; and  that  was  about  forty- 
five  years  before  the  project  was  conceived  by  Robert  Raikes. 
But  apart  from  this.  Sabbath-schools  in  England  owe  their  or- 
igin to  Methodism.  The  late  Rev.  Thomas  Jackson  shows,  in 
his  “Memoir  of  Hannah  Ball,”  a pious  Methodist  at  Wycombe, 
that  this  young  woman  established  a Sunday-school  in  that 
place  in  1769,  and  was  honored  as  the  instrument  in  training 
many  children  there  in  the  knowledge  of  God’s  holy  word. 
This  good  work  commenced,  therefore,  twelve  years  before  the 
benevolent  enterprise  of  Robert  Raikes.  This  fact  was  proba- 
bly unknown  to  him ; but  even  so,  the  very  idea  of  the  Sab- 
bath-school Avas  suggested  to  his  mind  by  Sophia  Cooke,  another 
young  Methodist — the  lady  who  afterward  became  the  wife  of 
the  celebrated  Samuel  Bradburn.  When  the  benevolent  citi- 
zen of  Gloucester  was  lamenting  the  prevalence  of  Sabbath 
desecration  by  the  young  savages  of  that  town,  and  seriously 
asked  what  could  be  done  for  their  reformation,  Sophia  Cooke 
meekly  but  wisely  suggested,  “ Let  them  be  gathered  together 
on  the  Lord’s  day  and  taught  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and  taken 
to  the  house  of  God.”  This  suggestion  being  approved  and 
adopted,  the  same  young  lady  assisted  Raikes  in  the  organization 
of  his  school,  and  walked  along  with  the  philanthropist  and  his 


230 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


ragged  urchins  the  first  time  they  attended  the  church.  John 
W esley  wrote  to  Robert  Raikes  a letter  encouraging  him  in  his 
good  work ; and  by  articles  in  his  own  magazine,  and  by  letters 
to  his  preachers,  he  promoted  the  adoption  of  Sunday-schools 
in  his  own  denomination,  obseiwing  at  the  time,  as  if  prophetic 
of  their  future  growth  and  importance,  “ I find  these  schools 
springing  up  wherever  I go ; who  knows  but  some  of  these 
schools  may  be  nurseries  for  Christians.”  ISTurseries,  in- 
deed, they  have  been,  and  still  are,  for  the  Churches.  From 
them  the  Churches  have  been  replenished  with  hundreds 
of  thousands,  perhaps  millions,  of  members  ; and  among  them 
not  a few  of  her  brightest  luminaries,  her  ablest  ministers,  her 
most  enterprising  and  useful  missionaries  and  their  wives. 

It  is  impossible  to  tabulate  the  glorious  results  of  these 
heaven-born  institutions  ; but  I find  that  several  years  ago  the 
number  of  Sunday  scholars  connected  with  Methodism  was 
computed  by  the  Rev.  Luke  Wiseman  at  “ three  millions  and 
nearly  five  hundred  thousand,”  which  we  have  reason  to  regard 
as  a very  moderate  estimate  at  that  time ; but  since  then  the 
number  must  have  increased  to  four  millions  as  connected  with 
Methodism,  while  not  less  than  six  millions  of  Sunday  scholars 
are  under  the  care  of  other  Christian  denominations. 

How  many  of  these  children  and  young  people  are  annually 
brought  to  the  enjoyment  of  salvation  cannot  be  accurately 
given ; but  from  some  statistics  collected  by  the  Sunday-school 
Union  in  England,  and  published  in  the  report  of  1875,  we 
have  ground  for  believing  that  the  aggregate  result  of  the 
labors  of  pious  Sabbath-school  teachers  must,  indeed,  be  very 
great.  In  that  report  it  is  stated  that  of  the  schools  in  the  Un- 
ion eighty-four  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  were  formerly  Sunday 
scholars ; that  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  are  members  of 
Churches ; and  that  13,248  of  the  scholars  had  that  year  be- 
come united  with  the  respective  Churches.  But,  of  course,  the 
report  of  the  Sunday-school  Union  refers  to  those  schools  only 
which  are  identified  with  the  Union,  and  these  are  but  a frac- 


"Wesley’s  Ineleejs-ce  on  Keligion, 


231 


tion  of  the  whole.*  Yet  these  facts  may  be  taken  as  a fair 
sample  of  the  results  of  Sabbath-school  instruction  generally, 
certainly  not  as  an  exaggeration,  especially  as  the  work  of  the 
Sunday-school  teacher  is  now  become  more  spiritual  in  its  char- 
acter, and  the  aim  of  the  Christian  teachers  more  directly 
turned  to  the  salvation  of  the  scholars  under  their  care.  How 
many  thousands  of  Sunday  scholars  may  we  now  hope  are  con- 
verted to  God  in  one  year  in  the  aggregate  number  of  Sunday- 
schools  throughout  the  world  ? And  how  many  tens  of  thou- 
sands, yea,  hundreds  of  thousands,  have  been  converted  during 
the  hundred  years  since  Hannah  Ball,  the  young  Methodist, 
opened  her  school  at  Wycombe?  And  how  many  have  been 
transplanted  from  the  garden  of  the  Church  on  earth  to  flour- 
ish forever  in  the  paradise  of  God  above  ? Here  the  pious  im- 
agination may  luxuriate  ; here  may  gratitude  raise  her  voice  in 
exultant  praise ! 

Schools  aistd  Colleges. — Sunday-schools,  however,  were 
but  one  means  out  of  many  which  Wesley  employed  to  pro- 
mote the  great  work  of  education.  In  the  very  year  when  he 
shook  ofi  his  prejudice  against  open-ah’  preaching,  and  betook 
himself  to  the  great  temple  of  nature,  Wesley  and  Whitefleld 
united  in  founding  the  flrst  Methodist  seminary ; and  the 
very  neighborhood,  too,  where  the  voice  of  the  revivahst 
preacher  was  first  heard  in  the  open  air  was  the  spot  where 
their  first  school  was  erected,  Whitetield  laying  the  corner- 
stone of  Kingswood  School,  and  Wesley  finding  the  funds  for 
its  erection  and  maintenance.  At  the  very  first  Conference 
which  Wesley  held,  (1744,)  the  question  was  formally  pro- 
posed, “ Can  we  have  a seminary  for  laborers  ? ” This  shows 
what  was  in  Wesley’s  heart  for  men  and  ministers  as  well  as 
youths ; but  means  were  wanting,  then,  or  the  claims  of  other 
objects  were  more  cogent  at  the  moment.  But  in  subse- 

* The  entire  number  reported  as  belonging  to  the  [English]  Sunday-school  Union 
in  IStS  is  thus  stated;  Schools,  4,145;  teachers,  98,904;  scholars,  870, 638;  not 
one  tenth  of  the  whole  number  in  the  world. 


232  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 

quent  Conferences  the  question  was  resumed  again  and  again, 
and  though  not  realized  at  the  time,  the  thought  lived  in  Wes- 
ley and  his  successors,  and  was  ultimately  carried  into  effect 
by  the  establishment  of  those  numerous  and  important  schools 
and  colleges,  in  England  and  America,  and  in  their  mission 
Conferences,  which  are  a high  honor  to  the  liberality  and 
intellectual  culture  of  the  great  Methodist  family.  Thus  the 
revival  of  religion  was  the  revival  of  education,  and  they  both 
advanced  together  hand  in  hand. 

Tract  Societies. — The  Religious  Tract  Society  of  London 
is  a noble  institution ; it  is  one  of  the  glories  of  the  age.  It 
sows  divine  truth  broadcast  over  the  earth,  at  the  rate  of 
200,000  religious  tracts  and  books  every  working  day  in  the 
week,  or  60,000,000  every  year ; and  since  its  oiigin,  in  1799, 
it  has  sent  forth  silent  messengers  of  truth  and  mercy  to  the 
extent  of  1,600,000,000  of  copies. 

It  may  not,  however,  be  generally  known  that  this  institu- 
tion is  one  of  the  outgrowths  of  the  wonderful  revival  and 
diffusion  of  earnest  rehgion  produced  under  God  by  the  labors 
of  Wesley,  Whitefield,  and  their  zealous  coadjutors.  Yet  so 
it  was.  Wesley,  indeed,  had  written,  published,  and  circulated 
numerous  tracts,  and  even  organized  a “ Tract  Society  f a 
number  of  years  before  the  grfeat  society  in  Paternoster  Row 
was  conceived.  Only  four  years  after  W esley  had  experienced 
the  great  spiritual  change,  he  began  his  career  as  a writer  and 
distributor  of  religious  tracts  ; for  in  the  year  1762  we  find  he 
had  already  written  and  distributed  by  thousands,  tracts  en- 
titled, “A  Word  to  the  Smuggler,”  “A  Word  to  the  Sabbath- 
breaker,”  “A  Word  to  the  Drunkard,”  “A  Word  to  the 
Swearer,”  “A  Word  to  the  Street- walker,”  “A  Word  to  the 
Malefactor.”  And  these  tracts  he  distributed  himself,  and 
supplied  them  to  his  preachers  that  they  might  scatter  them 
broadcast  wherever  they  could  do  so  to  the  probable  good  of 
the  recipients.  In  1715  we  find  him  rejoicing  that  his  efforts 
were  inducing  others  to  adopt  the  same  mode  of  usefulness ; 


Wesley’s  Influence  on  Religion. 


233 


for  he  writes,  “ It  pleased  God  to  provoke  others  to  jealousy, 
insomuch  that  the  Lord  Mayor  had  ordered  a large  quantity 
of  papers  dissuading  from  cursing  and  swearing  to  be  printed 
and  distributed  to  the  train-bands.  And  on  this  day,  “ An 
Earnest  Exhortation  to  Repentance,”  was  given  away  at  every 
church  door  in  or  near  London  to  every  person  who  came  out, 
and  one  left  at  the  house  of  every  householder  who  was  absent 
from  church.  I doubt  not  God  gave  a blessing  therewith.” 
This  was  tract  distribution  by  wholesale,  the  eSect,  evidently, 
of  Wesley’s  example. 

Wesley  did  more  than  this.  He  saw  in  such  a work  the  im- 
portance of  organization,  of  general  sympathy  and  co-operation, 
and,  therefore,  he  issued  a prospectus  and  formed  “A  Religious 
Tract  Society  ” to  distribute  tracts  among  the  poor.  He  laid 
down  only  three  simple  rules,  but  a list  of  thirty  tracts  was 
proposed,  already  written  or  published  by  himself  as  a begin- 
ning, and  the  proposal  concludes  with  these  characteristic 
words : “ I cannot  but  earnestly  recommend  this  to  all  those 
who  desire  to  see  scriptural  Christianity  spread  through  these 
nations.  Men  wholly  unawakened  will  not  take  pains  to  read 
the  Bible.  They  have  no  relish  for  it.  But  a small  tract  may 
engage  their  attention  for  half  an  hour ; and  may,  by  the  bless- 
ing of  God,  prepare  them  for  going  forward.” 

Here,  then,  was  the  organization  of  a “ Religious  Tract  So- 
ciety,” designed,  as  Wesley  himself  states,  for  these  nations^' 
and  based  npon  the  most  broad,  catholic  principles ; and  this 
Society  was  in  existence  and  operation  seventeen  years  before 
the  Religious  Tract  Society  of  Paternoster  Row  was  organized. 
Yet,  strange  to  say,  in  the  “Jubilee  Volume  of  the  Religious 
Tract  Society”  of  Paternoster  Row,  the  efforts  of  John  Wes- 
ley are  not  once  named  ! On  reading  that  official  volume  some 
time  ago  I was  amazed  to  find  that  though  the  isolated  efforts 
of  some  others  are  made  prominent,  the  extensive  labors  of 
John  Wesley  in  this  department  of  usefulness  are  unnoticed, 
and  the  Religious  Tract  Society  he  organized  is  not  even 


234 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


named.  This  strange  omission  must,  we  think,  have  been  the 
result  not  of  design,  but  of  the  absence  of  information.  But 
though  unnoticed  or  unknown  by  Mr.  Jones,  the  author  of  the 
above  work,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  great  institution  which 
is  blessing  the  world  every  week  with  more  than  a million  of 
religious  tracts  and  books,  is  the  legitimate  offspring  of  Wes- 
ley’s labors  and  of  his  influential  efforts  in  the  same  line  of 
usefulness.  It  is  gratifying  to  know,  that  although  the  Relig- 
ious Tract  Society  established  by  John  Wesley  does  not  now 
exist  in  its  original  form,  its  successor  lives  in  vigor  and  pros- 
perity at  the  Wesleyan  Book-Room,  in  City  Road,  London, 
having  1,250  distinct  and  separate  publications  in  18T1,  and 
issuing  in  one  year  (1867)  not  fewer  than  1,570,000  tracts,  all 
printed  and  published  by  itself. 

Books  and  Periodicals. — While  Wesley  was  the  origin- 
ator of  a Religious  Tract  Society,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
the  active  promoter  of  general  knowledge.  In  1749  we  find 
evidence  that  he  had  previously  published  volumes  as  well 
as  tracts,  and  now  he  began  to  issue  his  “ Christian  Library,” 
in  fifty  volumes,  embracing  all  sorts  of  valuable  knowledge, 
but  expurgated  fj’om  the  mixture  of  all  sentiments  that  might 
be  detrimental  to  sacred  truth.  In  the  year  1777  he  began 
to  publish  the  “ Arminian  Magazine,”  which  he  edited  'him- 
self until  his  death.  His  preachers  were  his  colporteurs,  for 
every  circuit  was  to  be  supplied  with  books  by  the  “ assistant,” 
or  superintendent  preacher;  and  thus  the  press  was  made  a 
powerful  auxiliary  to  the  living  voice  in  diffusing  knowledge, 
defending  truth,  and  promoting  the  spread  of  religion.  All 
that  Wesley  did,  and  all  he  said,  echoed  the  voice  of  God, 
“ Let  there  be  light.”  He  was  a foe  to  ignorance,  because  he 
was  the  friend  and  the  messenger  of  truth ; and  to  render  his 
wholesome  literature  accessible  to  the  poor,  he  sold  his  publi- 
cations as  cheap  as  possible,  and  where  means  were  wanting 
to  purchase  he  was  ever  ready  to  give  his  publications  without 
charge. 


Wesley’s  Influee'ce  oft  Eeligion. 


235 


Bible  Societies. — The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
formed  in  the  year  1804,  is,  without  doubt,  the  grandest 
institution  in  the  world.  Yet  it  was  not  the  first  organiza- 
tion to  dispense  the  written  word.  It  was  preceded  by  the 
Naval  and  Military  Bible  Society,  formed  twenty-five  years 
before.  But  both  these  institutions  originated  in  the  great 
rehgious  movement  of  the  age — one,  indeed,  directly  from 
Methodist  agency,  and  the  other  from  Methodistic  influ- 
ence. The  venerable  Thomas  Jackson  refers  to  this  fact 
in  his  “ Centenary  of  Methodism,”  and  the  Eev.  Luke  Tyer- 
man  in  his  copious  “Life  and  Times  of  Wesley,”  gives  us  the 
following  interesting  account  of  the  origin  of  the  first  Bible 
Society  in  the  world.  He  says,  in  vol.  iii,  page  314 ; “ The 
first  Bible  Society  founded  in  Great  Britain,  and  perhaps  in 
the  world,  was  estabhshed  in  1779,  and  was  the  work  of  Meth- 
odists. George  Cussons  and  John  Davies,  after  leaving  the 
Leaders’  meeting  in  West-street  Chapel,  entered  into  conversa- 
tion, and  when  near  Soho  Square,  formed  a resolution  to 
endeavor  to  raise  a fund  for  supplying  soldiers  with  pocket 
Bibles.  They  and  a dozen  of  their  friends  united  themselves 
into  a Society  for  promoting  this  object.  Their  meetings  were 
held  once  a month  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Dobson,  of  Oxford- 
street.  John  Thornton,  Esq.,  of  Clapham,  became  a generous 
subscriber.  The  first  parcel  of  Bibles  was  sent  from  the  vestry 
of  Wesley’s  West-street  Chapel ; and  the  first  sermon  on  behalf 
of  the  Society  was  preached  in  the  same  chapel  by  the  Eev. 
Mr.  Collins,  from  the  appropriate  words,  ‘ And  the  Philistines 
were  afraid,  for  they  said,  God  is  come  into  the  camp.  And 
they  said,  W oe  unto  us,  for  there  hath  not  been  such  a thing 
heretofore.’  Thus  arose  the  Naval  and  Milita/ry  Bible 
Society^ 

This  institution,  which  still  exists  as  a distinct  organization, 
was  the  precursor  by  twenty-five  years  of  the  great  Bible  So- 
ciety for  the  world ; and  both  sprang  from  the  same  cause — 
that  craving  for  Bible  truth  which  the  revival  of  rehgion  had 


236 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


excited.  There  is  an  obvious  and  providential  connection 
between  this  and  kindred  institutions.  The  gracious  revival  of 
experimental  rebgion  excited  tlie  benevolent  j)rineiple,  and 
stimulated  men  and  women  to  do  good ; and  one  form  of  doing 
good  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  giving  gratuitous  religious 
instruction  to  the  young ; bence  tbe  origin  of  Sunday-scbools. 
Sabbatb-scbools  produced  in  a few  years  a generation  of  readers. 
To  afford  wholesome  pabidum  to  bundi-eds  of  thousands  of 
newly  created  readers,  religious  tracts  and  books  must  be  sup- 
plied ; to  meet  the  narrow  means  of  the  poor,  the  books  must 
be  supplied  at  a cheap  rate.  Hence,  Wesley’s  tracts,  and  his 
Christian  Library,  of  fifty  volumes ; and  hence,  too,  his  Relig- 
ious Tract  Society,  followed,  as  it  was,  seventeen  years  after 
by  the  great  organization  of  the  Tract  Society  in  Paternoster 
Row. 

But  it  was  not  possible  that  the  religious  thirst  now  excited 
could  be  wholly  satisfied  with  human  literature.  There  was 
the  Bible,  the  Book  of  God,  the  fountain  of  all  religious  truth, 
and  sole  ground  of  its  authority.  This  must  be  had.  The 
desire  became  intense,  and  equally  so  the  zeal  of  holy  men  to 
meet  it.  This  desire  had  become  so  ardent  among  the  people 
in  Wales,  where  the  circulating  schools  of  Howell  Harris  and 
his  zealous  coadjhitors  had  promoted  education,  that  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Charles,  of  Bald,  came  to  London  to  interest  benevo- 
lent men  in  supplying  the  population  of  Wales  with  copies  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  A meeting  of  some  ministers  and  brethren 
was  called,  and  it  was  proposed  to  organize  a Society  for  this 
purpose,  “ to  supply  the  population  of  Wales  with  the  Bible.” 
Joseph  Hughes,  of  Battersea,  got  up,  (I  fancy  I see  him  now, 
for  I knew  that  holy  man,)  and  he  uttered  these  words : “ Form 
a society  for  Wales  ! Why  not  form  a society  for  the  world  ? ” 
As  if  inspired  by  the  noble  sentiment,  it  was  resolved  to  widen 
the  basis  and  purpose  of  the  society,  to  embrace  not  only  the 
small  principahty  of  Wales,  but  the  whole  world.  The  Bible 
Society  was  then  inaugurated,  and  thus  we  see  how  naturally 


"Wesley’s  Influe^stce  oit  Keligion.  237 

it  grew  under  the  providence  of  God,  from  the  gracious  revival 
of  experimental  religion,  to  the  promotion  of  which  the  Wes- 
leys and  George  Whitefield  had  devoted  their  lives.  Other 
holy  men,  especially  the  zealous  evangelists  in  W ales,  performed 
a worthy  part,  but  history  will  ever  accord  the  most  prominent 
place  to  John  Wesley  in  this  great  and  glorious  movement. 

The  Bible  Society  has  existed  seventy-four  years,  and  it  has 
accomplished  a work  unequaled  in  the  aimals  of  our  world.  It 
has  published  the  Book  of  God  in  nearly  three  hundred  lan- 
guages or  dialects,  and,  including  the  issues  of  its  auxiliaries  at 
home  and  abroad,  it  has  circulated  since  its  commencement, 
copies  of  the  word  of  God  in  whole,  or  in  portions  thereof,  to 
the  amazing  number  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  millions,  and  is 
sending  them  forth  at  the  rate  of  five  millions  every  year. 
Behold,  what  hath  God  wrought ! 

In  the  committee  formed  at  the  organization  of  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society  we  see  the  names  of  two  distin- 
guished Methodists,  Christopher  Lundius  and  Joseph  Butter- 
worth  ; and  in  the  third  year  of  its  existence  we  find  the  name 
of  the  Bev.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  then  the  president  of  the 
Wesleyan  Conference,  who,  at  the  special  request  of  the  Bible 
Society,  was  appointed  by  the  Conference  to  London  for  the 
third  year,  his  presence  being  deemed  indispensable  to  the 
work  of  providing  the  Scriptures  in  foreign  languages.  These 
facts  show  both  the  direct  and  indirect  influence  of  Methodism 
in  giving  the  Bible  to  the  world. 

Modern  Missionary  Societies. — I have  before  me  the  rec- 
ord of  more  than  forty  missionary  institutions  for  spreading 
the  gospel  at  home  and  abroad,  aU  of  which  have  risen  since 
1790,  and  to  these  a large  number  of  kindred  institutions  may 
be  added ; and  though  some  of  these  have  no  nominal  connec- 
tion with  Methodism,  they  all,  doubtless,  originated  in  that 
rehgious  awakening  which  Wesley,  Whitefield,  and  their  asso- 
ciates in  labor  and  prayer,  so  extensively  promoted.  For,  in- 
deed, Methodism  itself  is  one  great  collection  of  missionary 


238 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


organizations.  "When  Wesley  found  the  ehurclies  closed  against 
him  he  said,  “ The  world  is  my  parish ; ” and  henceforth  knew 
no  more  ecclesiastical  restraints.  The  great  commission  to  the 
apostle  was  “ Go ; ” here  is  “ itinerancy  ; ” and  Wesley  and  his 
preachers  went  forth ; they  traveled.  The  great  commission 
said,  “ Go  into  all  the  world ; ” and  hence  no  more  parochial 
limitations  for  Wesley.  The  great  commission  said,  “Preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creatni-e ; ” and  hence  the  outlying  masses 
must  be  reached ; and  if  they  will  not  come  to  the  gospel  the 
gospel  must  be  carried  to  them ; and  hence  the  open-air  aggres- 
sions, and  the  ministry  exercised  in  barns,  cottages,  fairs,  mar- 
ket-squares, and  in  all  places  where  neglected  humanity  could 
be  found.  Here  was  missionary  life  and  effort  in  the  very  soul 
and  essence  of  Methodism ! Lay  preachers  rose  up  at  first  in 
units,  then  in  tens,  then  in  hundreds,  and  ere  long  in  thou- 
sands. Here  was  the  revival  of  an  obsolete  but  a primitive 
mode  of  diffusing  the  gospel.  Men  speaking  for  Christ  in 
homely  phrase,  but  in  living  earnestness,  because  the  love  of 
Christ  and  the  love  of  souls  constrained  them.  Without  ordi- 
nation and  without  ecclesiastical  authority,  except  that  which 
Christ  himself  imparted  and  inspired ; and  here  were  missiona- 
ries ready  at  once  for  the  work  required.  This  formed  no  part 
of  W esley’s  plan ; for,  indeed,  he  had  no  plan  but  that  of  fol- 
lowing wherever  God’s  providence  and  Spirit  might  lead.  It 
led  him  to  this  in  spite  of  his  former  prejudices ; for  it  gi’ew 
out  of  the  spiritual  life  of  Methodism  as  naturally  and  sponta- 
neously as  the  tree  grows  from  the  vitality  and  energy  of  the 
root. 

Hence  the  missions  of  Methodism  to' distant  lands  and  for- 
eign climes  rose  without  any  organization,*  for,  indeed,  the 
organization  came  not  until  the  mission  work  had  gained  a 

* January,  1V84 — eight  years  before  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  twelve 
years  before  the  London  Missionary  Society,  and  sixteen  years  before  the  Church 
Missionary  Society — Dr.  Thomas  Coke  and  Thomas  Parker  organized  a Foreign 
Missionary  Society,  and  published  “ A Plan  of  the  Society  for  the  Establishment  of 
Missions  among  the  Heathens.” — Editor. 


Wesley’s  Influence  on  Eeligion. 


239 


footing  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  Thus,  twenty-six  years 
before  Dr.  Coke  went  to  the  West  Indies,  a negress  and  her 
master,  iSTathaniel  Gilbert,  had  introduced  Methodism  into 
Antigua,  (West  Indies.)  This  beginning,  followed  up  by  the 
labors  of  John  Baxter,  a ship  carpenter,  had  resulted  in  a Soci- 
ety of  1,569  members,  and  the  converted  negroes  themselves 
had  built  a chapel  from  their  own  earnings.  Hence  it  was 
the  work  of  Dr.  Coke  not  to  originate  but  to  extend  the 
mission,  which  had  spontaneously  grown  up  from  lay  agency 
in  the  West  Indies.  It  was  the  same  in  the  United  States  of 
America. 

Philip  Embury,  an  Irish  emigrant,  excited  to  his  duty  by 
the  zeal  of  Barbara  Heck,  had  commenced  preaching  in  his 
own  house,  and  formed  a Methodist  Society  in  Hew  York  in 
1766;  and  soon  after  Captain  Webb,  arriving  in  Hew  York, 
preached  to  the  people  in  his  uniform ; and  when,  three  years 
after,  in  1769,  the  Conference  in  England  sent  Eichard  Board- 
man  and  Joseph  Pihnoor,  they  found  already  a Society  of  100 
members  and  a place  of  worship  that  contained  1,700  people ; 
but  as  only  one  third  of  the  hearers  could  get  in,  the  other  two 
thirds  had  to  listen  outside  the  building  as  well  as  they  could. 

Here,  again,  the  work  of  missions  had  sprung  xrp  without 
human  organization,  just  as  the  primitive  missions  sprang  up 
in  Cesarea,  in  Cyprus,  in  Antioch,  etc.,  in  apostolic  times.  It 
was  to  assist  this  infant  mission  Church  in  Hew  York  that  the 
first  missionary  collection  was  made  at  the  Conference  of  1769. 
It  was  much  the  same  in  Canada,  Hova  Scotia,  and  many  other 
parts  of  America.  We  cannot,  for  want  of  space,  narrate  the 
facts,  though  they  are  of  thrilling  interest,  showing  the  vital 
power,  the  spontaneous  development,  of  Methodism.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  Methodism,  thus  planted  in  America,  continued  to 
spread  in  every  part  of  the  great  republic  under  the  apostolic 
labors  of  Erancis  Asbury,  whose  incessant  activity  emulated 
the  enterprise  of  Wesley,  and  the  burning  fervor  of  John  Hel- 
son  and  Thomas  Walsh.  Ho  labors  could  exhaust,  no  difficul- 


240 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


ties  could  conquer,  the  energy  of  that  devoted  man.  He 
forded  rivers,  he  penetrated  forests,  he  tracked  the  footsteps 
of  the  hardy  emigrant  to  the  uttermost  settlement,  and  carried 
the  gospel  to  the  remotest  bounds  of  civilization.  He  was,  in- 
deed, a bishop  of  the  primitive  type,  in  labors  abundant,  in 
perils  oft : and  amid  his  incessant  and  arduous  toils,  by  night 
as  well  as  by  day,  carrying  with  him  the  care  of  all  the 
Churches  of  his  ever-widening  episcopate.  His  contempora- 
ries labored  with  corresponding  zeal  and  self-denial.  His  suc- 
cessors have  carried  on  the  great  work  transmitted  to  their 
hands,  and  copious  showers  of  blessings  have  been  poured  upon 
their  Churches. 

Methodism,  taken  in  the  aggregate,  occupies  no  small 
space  on  the  surface  of  the  globe.  Born  of  missionary 
zeal,  all  the  sections  of  Methodism  are  actuated  by  the 
missionary  spirit,  and  employ  their  wealth,  their  influence, 
and  some  of  their  best  men  as  missionaries  in  spreading  the 
gospel  both  at  home  and  in  various  parts  of  the  heathen 
world.  Looking  at  the  facts  before  us,  we  cannot  but  regard 
Methodism  as  a great  missionary  institution,  putting  forth  its 
own  energies  for  the  conversion  of  the  world,  and  by  its  spirit, 
its  efforts,  and  its  example,  kindling  the  fire  in  other  Churches, 
and  becoming  by  moral  influence,  the  main  cause,  under  God, 
of  the  wonderful  revival  of  missionary  zeal  in  the  several 
denominations  which  have,  within  the  last  sixty  years,  waked 
up  to  the  duty  of  doing  their  part  in  evangelizing  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  “ Methodism,”  said  the  eloquent  Dr.  Chalmers, 
“ is  Christianity  in  earnest.”  Tes,  and  one  part  of  its  mission 
was  and  is  to  arouse  other  Churches  to  earnestness..  As  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Dobbin,  though  a Churchman,  and-  of  the  Dubhn 
University,  writes,  when  referring  to  the  origin  of  Methodism 
and  its  powerful  influence  on  Christendom : “ Hever  was 
there  such  a scene  before  in  the  British  Islands ; there  were 
no  Bible,  tract,  or  missionary  societies  before  to  employ  the 
Chui’ch’s  powers,  and  indicate  its  path  of  duty;  but  Wesley 


Wesley’s  Influence  on  Eeligion. 


241 


started  tliem  all.  Tlie  Cliurcli  and  the  world  were  alike 
asleep  ; he  sounded  the  trumpet  and  awoke  the  Church  to 
work.”  The  venerable  Perronet  had  the  same  feeling  in 
his  day,  while  Wesley  was  alive ; for  when  looking  around  on 
the  wonderful  effects  of  Methodism,  he  wrote  these  remark- 
able words : “ I make  no  doubt  that  Methodism  is  designed  by 
Providence  to  introduce  the  approaching  millennium.”  A 
sentiment  which  the  subsequent  development  and  influence  of 
Methodism  has  served  to  illustrate  and  conflrm. 

Lat-pkeaching. — To  lay-preaching,  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred, we  must  be  allowed  to  give  a more  extended  notice. 
When  introduced  by  Wesley  it  was  viewed  by  a slumbering 
Church  as  “ a startling  novelty and  pronounced  “ an  astound- 
ing irregularity  / ” but  soon  as  she  awoke,  and  rubbed  her 
eyes,  she  saw  that  instead  of  being  “a  starthng  novelty,” 
it  was  the  revival  of  a practice  as  old  as  Christianity  itself ; 
and  instead  of  being  “an  astounding  irregularity,”  it  had 
primitive  example  for  its  precedent  and  apostolic  sanction  for 
its  authority.  When  the  disciples  “were  scattered  abroad,” 
they  “ went  every-where  preaching  the  word  ” — in  “ Phenice, 
and  Cyprus,  and  Antioch ; ” and  instead  of  this  effort  of 
spontaneous  zeal  being  rebuked,  “the  hand  of  the  Lord  was 
with  them ; and  a great  number  believed,  and  turned  unto 
the  Lord.”  And  while  the  Church  retained  her  vital  en- 
ergy and  aggressive  power,  the  practice  of  lay-preaching 
was  continued ; for  we  find  in  the  early  part  of  the  third 
century,  Origen,  while  ijnordained,  went  from  Egypt  to  Pal- 
estine to  preach  in  the  churches ; and  Alexander,  the  Bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  and  the  Bishop  of  Cesarea,  in  a joint  letter  to 
the  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  justify  the  practice,  saying,  “ Wher- 
ever any  are  found  who  are  fit  to  profit  the  brethi-en,  the  holy 
bishops  of  their  own  accord  ask  them  to  preach  unto  the 
people.”  Hence,  “the  astounding  irregularity”  lay  not  in 
adopting,  but  in  so  long  neglecting,  the  primitive  and  di- 
vinely sanctioned  practice  of  lay-preaching.  It  was  divinely 


242 


The  AVesley  Memorial  A^olume. 


sanctioned  now  in  the  abundant  blessing  which  rested  upon 
AV^esley’s  humble  workers,  and  through  their  agency  the  gospel 
was  carried  to  hundreds  of  benighted  villages  and  towns  which 
the  regularly  ordained  ministers  could  not  reach;  and  thus 
was  created  a rich  and  abundant  source  from  which,  ever 
since,  the  regular  itinerant  ministry  has  been  supplied.  Other 
Churches  saw  the  practice  and  the  blessing  resting  upon  it, 
and  it  seemed  like  a new  revelation  dawning  upon  them. 
Henceforth  a lay  agency  was  adopted,  and  this  augmented 
power  imparted  new  energy  and  efficiency  to  the  Christian 
world.  Many  Churches,  once  stiffened  with  ecclesiastical 
starch,  and  muffied  with  sacerdotal  vestments,  have  been  given 
to  see  that  Christianity,  to  fulfill  her  mission,  must  awake  and 
put  on  strength ; must  shake  herself  from  the  dust,  and  loose 
the  bands  from  her  neck,  and  go  forth  untrammeled  and  work 
with  elastic  freedom,  employing  all  the  resources  of  her  power 
and  her  people  to  save  mankind.  Thus  Methodism  not  only 
awoke  religion  from  her  tomb,  but  burst  the  bandages  by 
which  she  had  been  trammeled  and  restrained,  and  bade  her  go 
free  to  bless  the  nations  of  the  earth.  We  have  not  space  to 
do  justice  to  a subject  so  copious,  so  diversified,  so  rich  in  facts 
of  interest,  and  facts  increasing  in  number  as  years  roll  on. 

Slavery  and  the  Slave-trade.— Slavery  is  now  become 
extinct  not  only  in  the  British  dominions  but  also  in  America ; 
but  who  knows  how  much  the  well-known  sentiments  of  AV^es- 
ley  have  infiuenced  public  opinion  on  this  subject?  At  the 
time  when  AV^hitefield  was  the  advocate  of  slavery  and  the 
owner  of  fifty  slaves,  and  when  John  Hewton — afterward 
rector  of  St.  Mary’s,  Woolnoth,  London — was  engaged  in  the 
African  slave-trade,  John  AVesley  was  denouncing  slavery,  and 
in  1774  he  published  a tract  of  fifty-three  octavo  pages  against 
it.  In  the  very  year  that  AV^esley’s  utterance  was  pronounced, 
Granville  Sharpe  began  to  advocate  in  public  the  cause  of 
freedom.  Fifteen  years  after  the  society  was  formed  for 
“The  Suppression  of  the  Slave-trade,”  AYesley’s  tract  was  re- 


"Wesley’s  Ineluence  ok  Keligiok. 


243 


publislied  in  Philadelpliia,  and  tlie  agitation  was  continued 
until  England  paid  do\\Ti  the  sum  of  £20,000,000  sterling  for 
the  freedom  of  the  slave.  The  same  feehng  grew  in  Amer- 
ica until  slavery  was  abolished,  and  Churches  for  a time  alien- 
ated met  and  embraced  each  other  in  fraternal  sympathy  and 
love. 

Sacked  Ltkic  Poetky. — In  noticing  the  influence  of  Meth- 
odism on  the  Churches  it  would  be  inexcusable  not  to  advert 
to  its  poetry.  The  Holy  Spirit  which  actuated  John  Wes- 
ley to  revive  true  experimental  religion  inspired  Charles 
Wesley  to  give  it  expression  in  poetic  numbers.  Methodism 
required  just  such  hymns  as  Charles  and  John  Wesley  com- 
posed. Its  psalmody  must  harmonize  with  its  earnest  spirit 
and  give  it  vocal  -utterance.  Its  doctrines  of  free  grace,  uni- 
versal redemption,  justifying  faith,  the  Holy  Spirit’s  witness, 
and  entire  sanctification ; its  intimate  and  holy  fellowship ; 
its  clear  apprehensions  of  duty ; its  sublime  morality,  and  its 
intense  missionary  ardor,  required  to  be  embodied  in  sacred 
song  for  the  purpose  of  public  worship,  and  of  family  and 
closet  devotion.  But  where  was  poetry  to  be  found  to  ex- 
press the  animus  of  the  Methodist  body  ? Evangelical  as 
are  the  sentiments,  refined  and  elegant  as  the  diction  and 
the  rhythm,  of  Watts,  Doddridge,  Cowper,  Hewton,  and 
others — we  acknowledge  we  enjoy  and  admire  many  of 
the  hymns  of  the  honored  men  we  have  named — I know 
of  no  collection  of  hymns,  ancient  or  modern,  but  one, 
which  can  fully  utter  the  doctrinal  sentiments  and  the  vig- 
orous pulsations  of  the  Methodistic  heart,  and  that  collection 
is  the  Hymn  Book  composed  and  compiled  by  John  and 
Charles  Wesley.  In  the  category  of  our  blessings,  the  Wes- 
leyan Hymn  Book  must  be  reckoned  one  of  unspeakable  im- 
portance and  value.  Besides  its  high  quahties  in  poetic  com- 
position, it  is  a vehicle  through  which  truth  is  conveyed,  and  a 
means  by  which  it  is  conserved.  It  comprises  a body  of  the 

soundest  theology,  the  richest  experience,  and  the  sublimest 
16 


244 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


inoraKty.  Its  absence  would  have  left  a vacuum  in  our 
privileges  which  no  other  book  of  poems  could  supply.  God 
saw  it  was  needed  and  he  supplied  the  need  by  the  sanctified 
genius  of  the  W esleys ; and  what  has  been  so  great  a blessing 
in  fostering  the  piety  of  Methodism  has  fed  the  fiame  of  re- 
ligion in  other  denominations;  and  hence,  of  late  years,  the 
copious  use  which  other  Churches  are  making  of  pur  excellent 
hymns. 

I cannot  better  conclude  Wesley’s  Influence  on  the  Religion 
of  the  World  than  in  the  following  sweetly  flowing  lines  of 
Charles  Wesley : — 

Our  conquering  Lord 
Hath  prospered  his  word, 

Hath  made  it  prevail ; 

And  mightily  shaken  the  kingdom  of  hell. 

His  arm  he’  hath  bared, 

And  a people  prepared 
His  glory  to  show ; 

And  witness  the  power  of  his  passion  below. 

His  Spirit  revives 
His  work  in  our  lives, 

His  wonders  of  grace. 

So  mightily  wrought  in  the  primitive  days. 

O that  all  men  might  know 
His  tokens  below. 

Our  Saviour  confess, 

And  embrace  the  glad  tidings  of  pardon  and  peace. 

Thou  Saviour  of  all 
Effectually  call 
The  sinners  that  stray : 

And,  O,  let  a nation  be  born  in  a day  1 
Then,  then  let  it  spread. 

Thy  knowledge  and  dread. 

Till  the  earth  is  o’erflowed. 

And  the  universe  filled  with  the  glory  of  God. 

Amen. 


WESLEY  AND  CHUECH  POLITY. 


HEK  Methodism  is  examined  in  the  light  afforded  by 


m the  experience  of  over  one  hundred  and  forty  years, 
it  presents  a record  of  events  which  is  both  interesting  and 
marvelous. 

That  one  out  of  a number  of  students  at  a famous  university 
should  be  noted  for  his  learning,  or  for  piety,  is  not  at  all  ex- 
traordinary ; but  that  such  a one,  in  modern  times,  fired  with 
no  mere  worldly  ambition,  and  with  no  desire  to  make  for  him- 
self a great  name,  but  whose  heart,  instead,  was  filled  with  zeal 
for  the  cause  of  God  and  compassion  for  the  ignorant  and  sin- 
ful— that  such  a one  should,  in  the  providence  of  God,  become 
the  founder  of  a great  Church,  which,  in  less  than  a century 
and  a half  should  number  its  membership  by  millions,  is  not 
only  astonishing,  but  is  without  a parallel  in  history. 

Such  a man  was  John  Wesley.  Such  a Church  is  Method- 
ism in  its  various  branches. 

It  is  not  my  present  purpose  to  review  the  individual  polity 
of  each  of  the  various  branches  of  Methodism,  nor  to  trace 
minutely  every  phase  of  the  polity  bequeathed  to  the  Church 
by  Mr.  Wesley,  as  it  was  developed  by  him  or  was  forced  upon 
him  by  circumstances,  but  simply  to  outline  some  of  the  more 
important  features  of  his  matured  polity,  and  to  show  how 
closely  the  man  was  identified  with  his  measures. 

When  Mr.  Wesley,  while  yet  a student,  began  to  visit  the 
prisons  in  order  to  benefit  the  inmates,  or  later  still,  as  a 
clergyman  of  the  Established  Church,  continued  his  ministra- 
tions to  the  poor  and  the  distressed,  he  had  no  idea  of  the  re- 
sults which  were  to  follow  his  disinterested  labors.  His  design 
was  to  reform  men  and  lead  them  to  Christ,  but  in  doing  this 


246 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


lie  expected  to  retain  them  in  the  Church  of  England,  not  to 
found  a ncAV  body. 

But  as  time  passed  the  work  grew  upon  him,  and  he  was 
forced  to  depart  from  the  beaten  track  which  usage  sanctioned 
in  the  clergymen  of  the  day,  or  leave  those  whom  he  had  been 
the  means  of  rescuing  from  lives  of  sin  to  again  become  the 
prey  of  the  arch  enemy,  and  perish  after  all.  hiearly  every- 
where he  went  the  newly-awakened  people  thronged  about 
liim,  seeking  instruction  in  spiritual  things,  and  he  realized 
that  some  systematic  method  must  he  adopted  by  which  it 
could  be  supplied.  Hence,  in  1739,  he  formed  the  first  of  his 
“ United  Societies.”  This  was  the  germ  whence  the  Church 
sjirung.  Those  who  had  desired  to  ridicule  the  whole  move- 
ment had  termed  Mr.  Wesley  and  his  followers  “Methodists,” 
and  they  wisely  accepted  the  name. 

The  Societies  increased  in  numbers,  and  subsequently  Mr. 
Wesley  divided  them  into  “smaller  companies  called  classes.” 
The  division  into  classes  was  at  first  designed  only  as  a finan- 
cial arrangement,  funds  being  needed  to  liquidate  a debt  which 
rested  on  a place  of  worship.  The  class  consisted  of  about 
twelve  persons,  one  of  whom  was  appointed  leader.  This  per- 
son had  the  oversight  of  the  class,  and  to  him,  at  first,  were  the 
contributions  paid.  Close  inspection  of  the  classes,  joined  to 
the  reports  of  some  of  his  leaders,  convinced  Mr.  Wesley  that 
these  classes  might  be  made  conducive  to  spiritual  growth, 
which  was  of  more  importance  than  the  financial  aid  which 
they  rendered,  though  both  were  essential  to  the  well-being  of 
the  Societies,  and  accordingly  he  incorporated  them  into  his 
system  of  government  designed  for  the  Societies.  Indeed,  it 
is  at  this  point  that  Mr.  Wesley  may  be  said  to  have  com- 
menced to  develop  his  Church  polity ; while  yet  he  was  far 
from  contemplating  a separation  of  any  of  the  Societies  from 
the  Established  Church.  That  idea  came  later,  when  circum- 
stances forced  him  to  adopt  it. 

For  four  years  he  regulated  and  governed  the  Societies  by 


Wesley  and  Church  Polity. 


247 


the  aid  of  his  helpers  and  class-leaders,  without  any  general 
written  law ; but  in  1743  the  “ General  Pules  ” were  drawn  up 
and  promulgated  as  the  constitution  by  which  the  United  So- 
cieties were  to  be  governed.  In  this  incomparable  code — in- 
comparable contrasted  with  other  human  codes — we  readily 
perceive  the  sagacity  and  foresight  of  the  compiler.  These 
rules  bear  to  Methodism  to-day  the  same  relation  that  the 
magna  charta  does  to  Englishmen. 

Only  one  condition  was  reqirired  of  all  who  desired  admis- 
sion into  the  Societies,  namely,  “A  desire  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come,  and  to  be  saved  from  their  sins;”  but  they 
were  expected  to  evidence  this  desire  by  their  subsequent  walk 
and  conversation.  To  guard,  however,  against  the  admission 
of  improper  persons  into  the  Societies,  who  might,  by  disor- 
derly conduct,  bring  the  cause  into  disrepute,  he  adopted  the 
probationary  system. 

The  term  of  probation  was  first — it  is  stated  by  some  au- 
thorities— two  months ; afterward  it  was  lengthened  to  three 
months,  and  finally  to  six  months. 

Whatever  views  may  be  taken  of  the  matter  now,  and  there 
are  many  able  men  who  contend  both  for  and  against  the 
continuance  of  the  probationary  system,  it  certainly  was  an 
advantage  both  to  the  Societies  and  to  those  seeking  admission 
to  them  in  the  commencement.  It  was  a public  guarantee  on 
the  one  hand  of  the  desire  of  the  Wesleys  to  keep  the  So- 
cieties pure,  and  on  the  other,  while  admitting  seekers  of 
salvation  to  the  religious  privileges  of  the  Societies,  it  gave 
them  opportunity  to  examine  carefully  the  doctrines  taught  by 
the  Methodists  and  their  usages.  Then,  if  any  were  unwilling 
to  subscribe  to  the  one  or  conform  to  the  other,  they  were  at 
liberty  to  leave  the  Society  without  assigning  a reason  why  they 
did  so ; and,  per  contra,  if  any  were  disorderly  in  their  walk, 
the  leader  might,  after  trying  to  bring  them  to  a better  state 
of  mind,  refuse  to  recommend  that  they  should  get  their  ticket 
of  membership,  when  they  were  quietly  dropped  without  the 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yoluiie. 


annoyance  of  expulsion.  At  the  expiration  of  the  six  months, 
the  conditions  of  the  probation  being  fulfilled,  namely,  a 
regular  attendance  at  class-meeting,  leading  a godly  life,  etc., 
etc.,  the  probationer  received  his  ticket,  which  constituted  him 
a member  of  the  Society. 

As  the  Societies  multiplied,  and  Mr.  Wesley’s  assistants  and 
helpers  increased  in  numbers,  it  became  necessary  that  he  and 
his  helpers  should  consult  concerning  the  state  of  the  work 
from  time  to  time ; so  another  advance  was  made,  and  the 
Church  polity  developed  one  step  further.  The  earlier  of 
these  consultations  were  styled  “ Conversations.”  Subse- 
quently the  term  Conference  came  to  be  applied  to  them. 
The  general  rules  were  admirably  adapted  to  the  regulation  of 
the  Societies,  with  their  oflSciary,  the  stewards  and  leaders ; but 
now  it  was  necessary  that  the  work  of  the  preachers,  Mr.  Wes- 
ley’s helpers,  should  be  regulated  also.  Care  must  be  taken 
as  to  what  doctrine  v^as  taught  by  these  men,  because  for  it 
all,  whether  for  good  or  ill,  the  world  would  hold  Mr.  Wesley 
responsible.  And  that  there  might  be  no  confusion  or 
clashing  of  interest  the  work  of  all  must  be  systematically 
arranged.  Considered  numerically,  these  earlier  Conferences 
were  small  indeed,  but  there  was  a large  amount  of  effective 
work  done  by  them  notwithstanding. 

As  the  founder  of  the  body,  Mr.  Wesley’s  authority  was,  of 
course,  supreme,  both  as  to  doctrine  and  usage ; but  he  was 
also  accorded  that  authority  by  the  common  consent  of  his 
people : and,  under  the  circumstances,  it  was  best  that  supreme 
authority  should  center  in  him.  Discussing  this  question,  Mr. 
Watson  remarks;  “Few  men,  it  is  true,  have  had  so  much 
power ; but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  could  not  have  retained  it 
in  a perfectly  voluntary  society  had  he  not  used  it  mildly  and 
wisely,  and  with  a perfectly  disinterested  and  public  spirit.” 

Referring  to  the  same  subject  Mr.  Wesley  thus  expresses 
himself : “ What  is  that  power  ? It  is  a power  of  admitting 
into,  and  excluding  from,  the  societies  under  my  care ; of 


Wesley  aistd  Chuech  Polity. 


249 


choosing  and  removing  ste'vvards ; of  receiving  or  not  re- 
ceiving helpers ; of  appointing  them  when,  where,  and  how  to 
help  me,  and  of  desiring  any  of  them  to  confer  with  me  when 
I see  good.  And  as  it  was  merely  in  obedience  to  the  provi- 
dence of  God  and  for  the  good  of  the  people  that  I at  first 
accepted  this  power,  which  I never  sought,  so  it  is  on  the  same 
consideration,  not  for  profit,  ^lonor,  or  pleasure,  that  I use  it 
at  this  day.  ...  I did  not  seek  any  part  of  it.  But  when  it 
was  come  unawares,  not  daring  to  bury  that  talent,  I used  it  to 
the  best  of  my  judgment.  Yet  I was  never  fond  of  it;  I 
always  did,  and  do  now,  bear  it  as  my  burden,  the  burden 
which  God  lays  upon  me ; and,  therefore,  I dare  not  lay  it 
down.” 

He  inaugurated  the  itinerant  system,  and  managed  it  so 
admirably  that  it  became  incoiporated  into  the  general  polity. 

After  the  long  and  somewhat  acrimonious  controversy  which 
had  been  carried  on  between  the  Methodists  and  their  oppo- 
nents concerning  Calvinism  had  subsided,  Mr.  Wesley  became 
more  than  ever  solicitous  about  a settled  polity  for  the  So- 
cieties. Every  year  the  necessity  for  devising  some  more 
systematic  plan  than  had  yet  been  arranged  became  more  and 
more  apparent.  As  early  as  1745  the  question  of  Church 
polity  had  been  discussed  at  length,  at  the  second  yearly  Con- 
ference, and  every  subsequent  year  had  added  its  quota  of 
light  gained  by  experience.  Mr.  Wesley  was  a Churchman, 
warmly  attached  to  the  traditions  of  his  Church ; but  in  this 
matter  he  felt  that  he  must  go  as  Providence  seemed  to  direct. 

In  1746  he  read  very  carefully  Lord  King’s  account  of  the 
“ Primitive  Church,”  which  convinced  him  that  the  unbroken 
apostolic  succession  was  a fable — a mere  assumption  which  had 
not  been  proved,  and  which  did  not,  in  fact,  admit  of  proof : 
and  this  conviction  helped  to  loosen  the  hold  which  the 
churchly  tradition  had  hitherto  kept  upon  his  mind.  Little 
by  little,  as  the  years  rolled  on  and  the  exigencies  of  the  case 
demanded  it,  his  mental  vision  was  widened  and  strengthened 


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to  meet  that  demand,  until  at  length  he  took  such  an  advanced 
position  that  his  brother  Charles  joined  issue  with  him  in  a 
very  strong  remonstrance. 

In  his  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  the  Societies  and  their 
establishment  upon  a permanent  basis,  Mr.  Wesley  urged  Mr. 
Fletcher  to  assume,  or  at  least  to  share,  his  responsibility ; but 
Mr.  Fletcher  declined  to  do  either.  Mr.  Wesley  was  in  a 
strait ; but  time,  and  the  precarious  tenure  by  which  the  Socie- 
ties held  their  property,  which  would  be  jeopardized  in  the 
event  of  his  death  if  not  properly  secured  before,  demanded 
prompt  and  definite  action.  The  Rubicon  had  long  been 
crossed  ; there  could  be  no  recrossing  now.  Strictly  speaking, 
it  had  been  crossed  by  the  organization  of  that  first  Society  in 
London  in  1739.  The  work  must  now  be  consolidated,  or 
more  than  forty  years’  labor  would  be  lost. 

But  it  was  not  the  Societies  in  Britain  alone  that  were  urg- 
ing him  to  give  them,  once  for  all,  a complete  and  definite 
polity,  which  would  prevent  disintegration  when  he  was  gone ; 
the  Societies  in  America  were  also  calling  imperatively  for 
prompt  and  effectual  measures  which  would  establish  the 
Church  there  upon  a permanent  basis.  In  America  prompt 
action  was  more  especially  urgent  because  of  exigencies  which 
had  arisen  as  a consequence  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Hitherto  the  Methodists  in  America  had  received  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  Church  at  the  hands  of  the  parish  ministers,  as 
they  had  done  in  Britain ; but  in  the  disordered  state  of  affairs 
in  the  Republic,  immediately  succeeding  the  war,  this  was  im- 
possible. Few,  if  any,  of  the  old-time  clergy  were  to  be  found 
in  the  land ; all,  or  nearly  all,  having  returned  to  Europe  with 
the  British,  as  every  vestige  of  Church  and  State  had  been 
swept  away  in  the  political  changes  effected  at  the  time. 

Mr.  Wesley  fully  realized  the  difficulties  which  beset  his 
path,  but  it  had  not  been  the  habit  of  his  long  life  to  turn 
aside  from  the  performance  of  duty  because  difficulties  were 
in  the  way.  When  any  were  to  be  encountered  he  met  them 


Wesley  and  Chukch  Polity. 


251 


squarely,  and,  if  possible,  overcame  them.  If  it  were  found  to 
be  impossible  to  overcome  them,  he  did  what  he  deemed  best 
under  the  circumstances,  and  in  this  spirit  he  proceeded  to  com- 
plete the  work  of  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

In  England  he  was  trammeled  by  Church  and  State  connec- 
tions. In  America  that  difficulty  had  been  removed.  He  had 
to  plan  for  the  permanent  establishment  of  the  Church  in  both 
countries,  under  different  conditions,  and,  in  the  matter  of  the 
American  Church  his  brother  Charles  opposed  him  strongly. 
After  careful  consideration  and  earnest  prayer  for  guidance, 
having  decided  what  he  thought  to  be  best  for  all  concerned, 
he  proceeded,  in  1784,  to  carry  out  the  measures  decided  upon. 

That  his  death  might  not  seriously  affect  the  Societies  in 
Britain  in  a legal  point  of  view,  he  had  what  is  known  as  the 
“ Deed  of  Declaration  ” drawn  up  and  enrolled  in  chancery. 
In  this  deed  he  named  one  hundred  preachers  as  the  legal  Con- 
ference, and  made  the  term  “ Conference  ” also  a legal  one. 
By  this  document,  also,  the  “ Legal  Hundred  ” were  constituted 
a governing  body,  invested  with  power  and  authority  which 
had  hitherto  rested  with  Mr.  Wesley  only.  It  also  provided 
for  the  election  of  a president  and  secretary  annually,  and  for 
the  filling  up  of  vacancies  which  would  occur  from  death  or 
other  causes ; but  did  not  make  any  provision  for  the  ordina- 
tion of  preachers,  or  authorize  them  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ments of  baptism  or  the  Lord’s  supper. 

It  was  not  till  years  after  Mr.  Wesley’s  death  that  the  En- 
glish preachers  began  to  administer  the  ordinances,  nor  then  till 
after  a long  and  unpleasant  controversy  had  ensued  upon  the 
question. 

It  should  here  be  remarked,  however,  that  in  1789  Mr.  Wes- 
ley did  ordain  Mr.  Alexander  Mather  general  superintendent, 
and  Messrs.  Eankin  and  Moore  elders.  “ These,”  Mr.  Pawson, 
one  of  the  early  presidents  of  the  English  Conference,  says, 
“he  (Mr.  Wesley)  undoubtedly  designed  should  ordain  the 
others.” 


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The  Wesley  Mejioeial  Volume. 


Such,  then,  briefly  outlined,  was  the  polity  given  to  the 
Methodist  Societies  in  Britain.  In  America  it  differed  some- 
what. Here,  as  has  been  said,  he  was  untrammeled  by  Church 
and  State  connection,  and  was,  therefore,  free  to  carry  out  the 
plan  of  Church  polity  which  was  the  result  of  his  mature  judg- 
ment. Accordingly,  in  September  of  the  same  year  that  he 
made  the  Deed  of  Declaration  he  ordained  Dr.  Coke  general 
superintendent,  and  eight  days  later  gave  him  a letter  of  au- 
thority to  proceed  to  America  to  organize  the  Church  there 
into  a distinct  body. 

Hor  did  Mr.  Wesley  act  in  this  matter  on  his  own  unaided 
judgment,  though  he  had  weighed  it  well.  He  consulted  with 
Mr.  Fletcher  and  others  concerning  the  advisability  of  the 
course  he  was  about  to  pursue,  and  they  agreed  with  him  as  to 
the  necessity  for  action.  That  he  had  a right  to  ordain  men  to 
the  offices  of  the  ministry  in  the  manner  he  did,  he  maintained 
by  referring  to  the  decisions  and  transactions  of  the  primitive 
Church  as  a precedent.  Hotahly  so  by  the  usage  of  the  “ ancient 
Alexandrian  Church,  which  through  two  hundred  years  pro- 
vided its  bishops  through  ordination  by  its  presbyters.”  Bishop 
and  General  Superintendent  were  synonymous  terms.  Mr. 
W esley  had  been  greatly  helped  to  his  decisions  upon  the  polity 
of  the  Church  by  Lord  King’s  “ Primitive  Church,”  the  care- 
ful reading  of  which,  forty  years  previous  to  this  time,  has  been 
before  mentioned.  “ Dr.  Coke,”  says  Dr.  Stevens,  was 
already  a presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England ; to  what  was 
he  now  ordained,  then,  by  Mr.  Wesley,  if  not  to  the  only 
remaining  office  of  bishop  ? ” 

Mr.  Wesley  had  also  sumnioned  Mr.  Richard  Whatcoat  and 
Mr.  Thomas  Yasey  to  meet  him  in  Bristol,  where  the  ordina- 
tions took  place  at  this  time.  Here,  on  the  1st  of  September, 
he  ordained  these  brethren  to  the  office  of  deacons,  assisted  in 
the  ordination  service  by  Rev.  James  Creighton  and  Dr.  Coke, 
both  presbyters  of  the  Church  of  England;  and  the  day  fol- 
lowing he  ordained  them  elders.  These  men,  then — Dr.  Coke 


Wesley  Ajsn)  Chuech  Polity. 


253 


as  superintendent  or  bishop,  and  the  Messrs.  "Whatcoat  and 
Yasey  as  elders,  the  associates  of  Dr.  Coke — were  the  persons 
commissioned  by  Mr.  Wesley  to  organize  the  Church  in  Amer- 
ica, to  whom  he  committed  the  well-defined  polity  and  liturgy 
which  he  had  prepared  for  it. 

Duly  accredited  from  Mr.  W esley  to  the  Societies  in  America, 
they,  on  the  morning  of  September  18,  1784,  set  sail  for  the 
place  of  destination,  which  they  reached  after  a stormy  passage 
of  six  weeks.  They  landed  in  h7ew  York  on  the  3d  of  Novem- 
ber, and  were  entertained  for  a few  days  at  the  house  of  Stephen 
Sands,  an  infiuential  member  of  the  John-street  Church.  Surely 
it  was  fitting  that  the  first  Protestant  bishop  in  the  Dnited 
States  should  be  entertained  by  a member  of  the  first  Society 
organized  by  his  co-religionists  in  the  country.  In  New  York 
they  took  such  rest  as  the  Methodist  preachers  of  the  time 
were  wont  to  take,  preaching  each  day  or  evening,  till  they  set 
oil  for  Philadelphia.  Thence  they  proceeded  south  till  they 
reached  Barrett’s  Chapel,  where  Dr.  Coke  met  Mr.  Asbury, 
and  made  him  acquainted  with  Mr.  Wesley’s  plans  relative  to 
the  polity  of  the  Church,  and  his  wishes  concerning  himself. 

Mr.  Asbm-y  had  heard  of  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Coke  and  his 
colleagues,  and  was,  therefore,  partially  prepared  for  the  infor- 
mation he  now  received.  In  order  to  know  the  minds  of  the 
leading  men  among  the  American  preachers  he  had  called  a 
council  of  such  of  them  as  he  could  collect ; and  they  and  he 
deemed  it  wise  to  call  a Conference  forthwith,  to  meet  at  Bal- 
timore the  following  month. 

Freeborn  Garrettson  was  the  messenger  sent  “like  an  ar- 
row,” says  Dr.  Coke,  to  gather  the  preachers  for  this  eventful 
Conference.  On  the  opening  of  the  Conference  Dr.  Coke 
took  the  chair,  and  presented  Mr.  Wesley’s  letter  dated 
September  10th,  1784,  for  their  consideration.  In  this  letter 
Mr.  W esley  had  provided  for  the  establishment  of  the 
American  Societies  into  an  independent  Church,  with  an 
episcopal  form  of  government,  which  could,  he  argued — we 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


think  conclusively — be  regularly  organized  by  the  officers 
whom  he  had  appointed  to  do  so,  and  had  specially  ordained 
for  that  purpose,  namely.  Dr.  Coke  and  his  colleagues,  Messrs. 
Whatcoat  and  Yasey.  Pie  had  cited  to  those  who  objected  to 
this  polity  Lord  King  and  Bishop  Stillingfleet  as  authorities 
with  whom  he  concurred,  and  had  given  expression  to  his  own 
personal  preference  for  an  episcopal  form  of  government.* 
He  had  not  only  devised  this  form  of  government,  but  spe- 
cifically recommended  it  for  their  adoption,  and  had  also 
appointed  Mr.  Francis  Asbury  to  be  joint  superintendent  with 
Dr.  Coke.  The  Conference  cordially  adopted  Mr.  Wesley’s 
plan,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  form  themselves  “ into  an 
Episcopal  Church,  and  to  have  superintendents,  elders,  and 
deacons.” 

Though  appointed  by  Mr.  Wesley,  Mr.  Asbury  declined 

* See  the  Minutes  of  Conference  for  I'ZfS  and  1747,  quoted  by  Dr.  Rigg,  in 
'■^Wesley  and  the  Church  of  England”  pp.  77  and  80  of  this  volume.  Note  partic- 
ularly Wesley’s  answers  to  the  questions,  “/s  Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  or  Inde- 
pendent Church  government  most  agreeable  to  reason  ? ” and,  ^'’But  are  you  assured 
that  God  designed  the  same  plan  should  obtain  in  all  Churches  throughout  all  ages  ? ” 

From  Mr.  Wesley’s  answers  to  these  questions,  and  others  equally  pertinent,  it 
will  be  seen  how  liberal  were  his  views  on  the  whole  subject  of  Church  govern- 
ment. While  Mr.  Wesley  had  his  preference,  he  did  not  believe  that  the  New 
Testament  Scriptures  prescribe  any  one  form  of  Church  government  Nor  did 
Mr.  Wesley  prescribe  any  as  “ essential  to  a Christian  Church.”  He  was  per- 
suaded that  it  was  “ a consequence  full  of  shocking  absurdity  ” to  deny  validity  to 
“the  foreign  Reformed  Churches,”  because  their  form  of  Church  government  is 
Presbyterian,  or  Independent,  and  not  Episcopal.  Hence  he  believed  that  the 
government  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America,  and  even  that  of  the 
Established  Church  of  England,  had  no  exclusive  claim  to  apostolic  authority. 
From  his  stand-point  the  Methodist  Churches,  whether  Episcopal  or  non-Episcopal, 
are  all,  in  form,  equally  apostolic.  While  he  preferred  a “ National  Church,”  he 
regarded  a National  Church  as  “ a merely  political  institution.”  And  while,  no 
doubt,  he  preferred  the  Episcopal  to  any  other  form  of  Church  government,  he 
did  not  proscribe  Churches  whose  government  is  either  Presbyterian  or  Independ- 
ent. This,  he  thought,  was  a matter  which  each  Church  had  the  scriptural  right 
to  determine  for  itself.  In  answer  to  the  question,  '■'•Must  there  not  be  numberless 
accidental  varieties  in  the  government  of  various  Churches?”  Mr.  Wesley  says: 
'■'There  mtist,  in  the  nature  of  things;  for  as  God  variously  dispenses  his  gifts  of 
Tvature,  providence,  and  grace,  both  the  offices  themselves  and  the  officers  in  each  ought 
to  be  varied  from  time  to  ,time.”  And  because  “ the  wisdom  of  God  had  a regard 
to  this  necessary  variety,”  he  concluded  to  be  the  reason  why  “ there  is  no  deter- 
minate  plan  of  Church  government  appointed  in  Scripture.” — Editor. 


Wesley  and  Church  Polity. 


255 


acting  as  superintendent  unless  elected  by  the  Conference  also. 
The  Conference  then  unanimously  elected  Dr.  Coke  and  Fran- 
cis Asbury  superintendents,  and  Mr.  Asbury’s  ordination  fol- 
lowed in  due  course.  Perhaps  no  system  of  Church  polity 
has  ever  been  devised  which  is  better  adapted  to  the  spreading 
of  the  gospel  in  all  lands  than  the  Methodist  episcopacy  is ; 
under  the  economy  of  which  both  pastors  and  societies  enjoy 
mutual  protection  from  arbitrary  rule,  and  are  favored  with 
the  privileges  of  Christian  fellowship.  The  millions  who  have 
been  brought  to  Christ  through  its  instrumentality  prove  its 
power  and  efficiency ; and  prove  also  the  sagacity  and  foresight 
of  Mr.  Wesley  in  elaborating  and  arranging  so  efficient  and  lib- 
eral a polity.  What  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  to-day, 
it  has,  like  the  constitution  of  Great  Britain,  grown  to  be  through 
the  storms  of  adversity  and  the  suns  of  prosperity  during  the 
lapse  of  years.  Equally  removed  from  the  assumption  and 
tyranny  of  a hierarchy  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  license, 
uncertainty,  and  lack  of  central  missionary  force  in  segregated 
communities  on  the  other ; a connectional  Church  sanctioned,  as 
we  think,  by  scripture,  it  stands,  at  least,  a peer  of  the  might- 
iest among  the  religious  organizations  of  the  age  ; not  boasting 
centuries  of  accumulated  power,  it  is  true  ; but  at  the  same 
time  not  burdened  with  centuries  of  excrescences  and  incum- 
brances. Youthful  and  free,  preserving  a pure  doctrine  and 
gathering  a wise  and  holy  zeal,  with  the  blessing  of  God  and 
under  the  power  of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  it  is,  perhaps,  not  too 
much  to  say  that  it  is — equally  with  the  other  Methodist 
Churches  of  Great  Britain  and  America — the  main  hope  of 
Protestantism  for  the  evangelization  of  heathen  lands. 


WESLEY  AND  TEE  COLOEED  EACE. 


WHEN  Jolin  "Wesley  was  on  his  first  visit  to  Charleston,  he 
preached  for  Alexander  Garden,  in  old  St.  Michael’s 
Church.  He  noticed,  with  pleasure,  several  negroes  present, 
with  one  of  whom  he  had  a conversation.  He  found  her  sadly 
ignorant  of  the  first  principles  of  religious  truth.  When  he 
made  a second  visit  to  Charleston  he  conversed  with  another 
negro  woman,  whom  he  found  in  the  same  sad  religious  state. 
As  carefully  as  he  could  he  taught  her  the  way  of  life.  Negro 
slavery  was  not  then  permitted  in  Georgia,  and  few  were  the 
negroes  whom  he  met.  But  while  in  Savannah  steps  were 
taken  by  him,  as  he  wi’ites,  “ toward  pubhshing  the  glad  tid- 
ings both  to  the  African  and  the  American  heathens.” 

On  his  return  voyage  from  Charleston  to  England,  on  board 
the  ship  in  which  he  sailed  were  two  negro  lads,  whom  he  in- 
structed in  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion.  Thus  early 
did  Mr.  Wesley  manifest  his  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
the  African  race.  His  opposition  to  slavery  and  the  slave-trade 
is  well  known.  His  powerful  arguments  against  the  latter 
largely  contributed  to  the  success  of  Wilberforce.  Indeed,  it 
may  be  confidently  affirmed  that  the  abolition  of  the  African 
slave-trade  was  due  more  to  England’s  great  Methodist  reform- 
er than  to  England’s  great  philanthropist. 

Little  did  Mr.  Wesley  dream,  while  conversing  with  the  ne- 
groes whom  he  met  in  America,  and  the  negro  boys  whom  he 
was  instructing  in  the  ship  on  the  Atlantic,  that  to  the  negro 
race,  for  whom  he  thus  early  felt  such  tender  regard,  a blessing 
would  flow  from  his  life-work  greater  than  any  other  unin- 
spired man  has  brought  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Ham. 
Without  sectarian  pride  we  may  say,  that  the  negro  race  has 


Wesley  an^d  the  Coloeed  Race,  257 

been,  under  God,  more  indebted  to  Mr.  Wesley  and  Methodism 
than  to  the  combined  efforts  of  all  other  Christian  bodies,  the 
world  over. 

The  space  allotted  to  this  article  is  too  limited  to  allow  more 
than  a mere  glance  at  the  work  wrought  by  the  Methodists  for 
the  colored  race.  The  facts  herein  presented  will  establish  the 
truth  of  what  has  been  said. 

In  1758  Nathaniel  Gilbert,  speaker  of  the  General  Assembly 
of  Antigua,  one  of  the  W est  India  Islands,  whose  family  claimed 
descent  from  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  the  great  English  navi- 
gator and  half  brother  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  became  an  ad- 
herent of  Wesley  while  on  a , visit  to  England.  Two  of  Mr. 
Gilbert’s  slaves,  whom  he  carried  with  him  to  England,  heard 
Mr.  Wesley  preach  in  their  master’s  house  at  Wandsworth. 
Professing  faith  in  Christ,  they  were  baptized  by  Mr.  Wesley. 
On  his  return  to  Antigua,  in  1759,  Mr.  Gilbert  began  to  preach 
to  his  negro  slaves.  For  fifteen  years  he  carried  on  the  work. 
In  1774  he  feU  asleep  in  Jesus,  and  rested  from  his  labors. 
His  end  was  happy  and  triumphant. 

After  his  death  the  Society,  of  about  sixty  members,  was 
kept  alive  for  eleven  years  by  two  faithful  negresses ; and  then 
Dr.  Coke  sent  a missionary  to  the  island.  The  first  missionary 
to  the  negroes  the  world  had  ever  seen  was  Cornelius  Winter, 
a Calvinistic  Methodist,  whom  Mr.  Whitefield  brought  with 
him  to  America ; but  the  first  successful  mission  among  them 
was  the  one  in  Antigua,  originated  by  Nathaniel  Gilbert,  a 
lay  preacher  and  slave-holder. 

In  1758  Mr.  Wesley  writes:  “January  17.  I preached  at 
Wandsworth.  A gentleman,  come  from  America,  has  again 
opened  a door  in  this  desolate  place.  In  the  morning  I 
preached  in  Mr.  Gilbert’s  house.  Two  negro  servants  of  his 
and  a mulatto  appear  to  be  much  awakened.  Shall  not  his  sav- 
ing health  be  made  known  to  all  nations  ? ” 

November  29,  1758,  Mr.  Wesley  writes:  “I  rode  to  Wands- 
worth and  baptized  two  negroes  belonging  to  Mr.  Gilbert,  a 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


gentleman  lately  come  from  Antigua.  One  of  these  is  deeply 
convinced  of  sin ; the  other  rejoices  in  God  her  Saviour,  and  is 
the  first  African  Christian  I have  known.  But  shall  not  our 

f 

Lord  in  due  time  have  these  heathens  also  for  his  inheritance  ? ” 

“ These,”  says  Mr.  Tyerman,  “ seem  simple  entries  ; but,  as 
the  acorn  contains  the  oak,  so  they  contain  the  germ  of  the 
marvelous  Methodist  work  and  successes  among  the  sable  sons 
of  benighted  and  degraded  Africa  from  that  day  to  this.  We 
think  not  only  of  thousands  of  converted  Africans  in  Nama- 
qualand,  KafPraria,  Bechuana,  l^Tatal,  Sierra  Leone,  on  the 
Gambia  and  the  Gold  Coast,  in  Dahomey  and  Guinea ; but  we 
also  think  of  tens  of  thousands  in  the  West  Indies,  and  Hterally 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  Southern  States  of  America. 
This  wonderful  work  of  God  began  in  the  house  of  hlathaniel 
Gilbert,  a temporary  sojourner  in  the  town  of  Wandsworth.” 

The  last  days  of  Hathaniel  Gilbert,  and  the  precious  influ- 
ence which  his  unselflsh  and  sanctified  life  exerted  upon  the 
family  that  he  left  behind  him,  are  thus  told  by  Mr.  Tyerman : 

“On  what  do  you  trust?”  asked  a friend.  “On  Christ  crucified,” 
was  the  quick  response.  “Have  you  peace  with  God  ? ” He  answered, 
“Unspeakable.”  “Have  you  no  fear,  no  doubt?”  “None,”  replied 
the  dying  saint.  “Can  you  part  with  your  wife  and  children?  ” “ Yes, 
God  will  be  their  strength  and  portion.”  Thus  died  the  first  West  In- 
dian Methodist.  His  wife  soon  followed  him.  His  daughters,  Alice 
and  Mary,  had  victoriously  preceded  him.  His  third  daughter,  Mrs. 
Yates,  died  an  equally  blessed  death.  His  son,  Nicholas,  for  years 
was  a faithful  minister  of  Christ,  and  in  his  last  moments  was  a 
happy  witness  of  the  power  and  blessedness  of  gospel  truth.  And 
finally,  his  brother  Francis,  his  faithful  fellow-laborer,  returned  to  En- 
gland, and  became  a member  of  the  Methodist  class  led  by  the  immortal 
vicar  of  Madeley,  the  first  class  paper  containing  four  names,  and  four 
only:  John  Fletcher,  Mary  Fletcher,  Francis  Gilbert,  and  George  Perks; 
while,  as  late  as  the  year  1864,  Fletcher’s  clerical  successor  in  the  Made- 
ley  vicarage  was  the  great  grandson  of  Nathaniel  Gilbert,  and  testified 
that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  no  child  or  grandchild  of  the  first 
West  Indian  Methodist  had  passed  away  without  being  prepared  for  the 
better  world;  and  that  almost  all  of  them  liad  been  even  di.stiuguished 


Wesley  akd  the  Coloeed  Race.  259 

among  Christians  for  their  earnest  devotion  to  the  divine  Eedeemer. 
‘‘  Instead  of  thy  fathers  shall  be  thy  children,  whom  thou  mayest  make 
princes  in  all  the  earth.” 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  trace  in  detail  the  wonderful  work 
of  Methodism  in  the  West  India  Islands,  or  how  the  mission 
extended  its  arms  to  the  coasts  of  South  America  and  Hon- 
duras. We  may  simply  contrast  Hayti  and  Cuba  with  Barba- 
does,  Antigua,  and  Jamaica,  in  order  to  note  the  beneficent 
efiects.  While  Methodism  has  at  no  time  and  nowhere  accom- 
plished all  she  has  capacity  to  do,  and  while  we  cannot  claim 
for  Methodism  that  it  has  made  the  freedmen  of  these  islands 
aU  they  should  be,  any  more  than  that  it  has  extirpated  vice 
from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland ; yet  the  contrast  between 
those  regions  upon  which  it  has  exerted  its  true  power  and 
those  upon  which  it  has  not,  is  so  striking  that  no  student  of 
history  can  fad  to  see  it. 

The  African  had  been  in  America  nearly  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  before  Methodism  came.  The  larger  number  of 
this  race  with  whom  it  first  came  in  contact  were  those  of 
Maryland  and  Yirginia.  While  they  were  by  no  means  highly 
civilized,  they^had  lost  many  of  those  features  which,  as 
barbarians,  they  had  brought  with  them  to  America.  They 
were  no  longer  fetich  worshipers  and  devotees  to  their  former 
superstitions.  While  still,  to  a great  extent,  the  slaves  of  relig- 
ous  delusion,  they  could  not,  properly  speaking,  be  called  idol- 
aters. The  Methodist  preachers  had  a timely  and  early  acce^ 
to  them  in  the  promulgation,  of  the  word  of  life.  The  simple 
gospel  thus  proclaimed  to  them  by  the  early  evangelists  had 
great  attraction  for  them.  Ere  long  fetichism  and  debas- 
ing hallucinations  fied  before  the  light  of  gospel  truth. 
They  were  once  barbarians,  and  would  have  remained  so  in 
their  native  land.  What  seemed  a curse  was  destined  to  prove 
a blessing  in  disguise.  Many  came  as  slaves  to  this  strange 
and  far-off  land,  to  die  in  the  triumphs  of  the  Christian  faith. 

Herein  is  seen  the  providential  hand  of  God  filled  with  the 
17 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


greatest  blessing  for  tbe  enslaved,  and  counteracting  the  cupid- 
ity of  man. 

When  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  organized,  in 
1784,  it  had  already  a large  number  of  negro  members  in  its 
expanding  communion. 

Asbury  and  Coke  were  Englishmen,  and  violently  opposed 
to  slavery ; and  Dr.  Coke,  by  his  attacks  upon  it,  impeded  to 
some  extent  the  work  among  the  slaves.  Asbury,  however, 
was  more  prudent,  and  more  disposed  to  avoid  public  discus- 
sion. The  Methodist  preachers  in  the  Southern  States  were 
many  of  them  the  sons  of  slave-holders,  and,  while  opposed  to 
slavery,  they  did  not  sympathize  with  Dr.  Coke’s  method  of 
treatment,  and  so  had  access  to  master  and  slave.  Those  early 
preachers  gave  great  attention  to  the  religious  interests  and 
welfare  of  the  colored  people,  and  in  consequence  large  num- 
bers of  them  were  formed  into  classes  wherever  they  were 
found.  The  class-leader  was  oftentimes  the  largest  slave- 
holder. A place  in  every  church  was  provided  for  the  colored 
members,  and  the  sacrament  was  administered  to  them  as  reg- 
ularly as  to  the  whites.  Ere  long  some  of  the  most  intelligent 
and  trustworthy  were  licensed  to  exhort  and  to  preach.  In 
Charleston,  Georgetown,  and  Wilmington,  several  very  large 
classes  were  formed.  The  colored  often  outnumbered  the 
white  members.  In  those  early  days  there  was  no  special  serv- 
ice for  this  class,  since  in  every  station,  at  the  stated  service, 
the  colored  members  occupied  and  often  filled  the  large  gal- 
leries, and  joined  heartily  in  the  worship.  Up  to  the  year 
1787  there  is  no  separate  report  of  the  colored  members.  The 
first  separate  report  showed  that  the  greater  number  were  in 
Delaware  and  Maryland. 

Among  the  leading  colored  preachers  of  earlier  Method- 
ism Henry  Evans,  of  Horth  Carolina,  occupied  a distinguished 
and  conspicuous  position.  He  was  a free-born  negro  and  a 
mechanic : a man  of  great  integrity,  and  in  high  favor  with 
the  whites  as  weU  as  with  those  who  were  of  his  own  color. 


Wesley  and  the  Colored  Race. 


261 


He  worked  among  the  stores  in  "Wilmington  and  Fayetteville, 
Horth  Carolina,  and  in  each  place  founded  a Church,  to  which, 
at  his  own  request,  white  preachers  were  sent.  The  Fourth- 
street  Church,  in  Wilmington,  is  now  upon  a lot  deeded  to  the 
African  Church,  for  such  the  first  Methodist  Church  there 
was  called,  and  owes  its  place  as  a church  lot  to  the  labors  of 
Henry  Evans.  So,  too,  the  first  Church  in  Fayetteville  was 
founded. 

What  Henry  Evans  was  to  the  South,  Black  Harry,  as  he 
was  called,  was  to  the  Horth.  He  was  a coal-black  negro,  and 
traveled  with  Asbury  and  Coke,  and  preached  with  great 
power. 

Castile  Seeby  was  another  famous  colored  preacher  of  a later 
day  ; one  to  whose  memory  Bishop  Capers  has  paid  the  tribute 
of  his  grateful  love. 

Richard  Allen,  founder  of  the  African  Methodist  Church, 
was  a power  in  Hew  York  Methodism.  In  Hew  York,  Phil- 
adelphia, Baltimore,  Horfolk,  and  in  the  rural  sections  of  the 
north-west  districts,  Methodism  made  gratifying  progress,  and 
especially  in  the  farther  South.  In  Charleston  Methodism 
made  large  conquests  among  the  colored  people.  There  were 
many  persons  of  color  in  that  city  of  high  respectability  and  of 
considerable  intelligence,  much  of  which  they  owed  to  the 
purity  and  simplicity  of  the  gospel  as  preacked  by  Methodist 
preachers. 

Hp  to  1832  there  were  no  laws  in  any  Southern  State  pro- 
hibiting colored  people  from  learning  to  read  and  write,  and 
there  were  regular  schools  kept  for  them.  Many  of  the  col- 
ored Methodists  could  read,  and  many  were  the  trusted  stew- 
ards and  housekeepers,  of  wealthy  families,  or  porters  in  banks 
and  stores.  Many  were  freeborn,  and  able  to  contribute  toward 
building  and  maintaining  the  churches. 

In  the  coimtry  the  slaves  attended  the  monthly  services  of 
the  circuit  preacher,  and  especially  the  camp-meetings.  This 
class  of  negroes  might  be  called  Americo-Africans,  since  they 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


were  several  generations  removed  from  tlie  native  Africans. 
Christianity  had  its  renovating  influence  upon  them.  The 
great  mission-plantation  system  was  not  as  yet,  and  the  slaves 
owned  by  a Chi’istian  master  were  regular  participants  in 
the  family  worship.  There  was,  however,  another  very  large 
class  of  negroes  perfectly  neglected.  It  was  that  class  on  the 
large  plantations  on  the  coast,  and  in  newly  settled  regions. 
Just  before  the  African  slave-trade  was  ended  by  law  large 
bodies  of  native  Africans  were  brought  into  the  country. 
They  were  purchased  in  large  numbers,  and  placed  in  the  rice 
fields  and  on  the  Sea  Islands.  In  a climate  milder,  yet  resem- 
bling that  they  left,  fed  abundantly  with  the  food  to  which 
they  were  accustomed,  they  increased  very  rapidly.  They  were 
under  the  rale  of  their  old  African  traditions,  and  groveling 
religious  superstitions  abounded.  The  children  and  grand-chil- 
dren of  these  native  Africans  in  general  feature  and  character 
resembled  those  who  had  come  from  Guinea  and  Congo.  The 
circuit  preacher  could  not  reach  them,  and  still  less  the  city 
preacher.  If  reached  at  all,  they  must  be  reached  by  the  mis- 
sionary sent  especially  to  them. 

The  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
was  organized  in  1817,  and  William  Capers,  afterward  bishop 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  one  of  its  first 
members.  His  great  heart  was  stirred  at  the  condition  of  the 
masses  on  the  large  plantations,  and  he,  in  connection  with 
James  O.  Andrew,  afterward  bishop  of  the  same  Church,  and 
always  the  warm  and  the  true  friend  of  the  negro  race,  devised 
the  plan  of  colored  missions.  This  was  in  1828.  Dr.  Capers 
prepared  catechisms,  visited  the  plantations,  secured  the  co- 
operation of  the  planters,  and  mapped  out  the  work.  But  few 
of  the  planters  on  the  coast  were  then  Methodists.  They  were 
principally  Episcopalians,  who  only  resided  on  their  plantations 
during  the  winter  months.  They  generally,  however,  gave  a 
hearty  co-operation,  some  of  them  agreeing  to  support  the  mis- 
sionary. There  was  much  that  was  disagreeable  and  trying  in 


Wesley  and  the  Coloeed  Eace. 


263 


tliis  mission  work.  Tke  slaves  themselves  were  but  few  removes 
from  heathenism  itself,  and  the  malaria  of  the  rice  fields  was 
very  deadly  to  the  white  man.  Hence  very  trying  were  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  missionary  labored.  The  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  supported  the  missions  till'  1845,  and 
then  the  work  was  continued  up  to  1865  by  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South.  Dm-ing  twenty  years  the  Church  South 
spent  not  less  than  one  million  of  dollars  in  this  field  alone. 
The  work  was  continually  expanding,  and  demanding  more  min- 
isterial and  financial  outlay.  The  mission-plantation  system 
grew  with  the  opening  of  new  lands,  and  colored  missions 
were  formed  wherever  there  was  any  large  number  of  negroes. 
Churches  were  built  especially  for  the  slaves,  and  when  they 
were  not  so  built,  the  churches  of  the  whites  were  used  by  them. 

In  the  cities  and  larger  towns  there  were  churches  especially 
erected  for  their  use,  and  a missionary  in  charge  of  them. 
Also  there  were  Sunday-schools,  leaders,  and  local  preachers. 
The  results  of  this  great  work  told  upon  the  negro  population. 
Polygamy,  at  one  time  so  extensively  practiced  among  them, 
ceased  among  those  under  Methodist  infiuence.  Many  colored 
families  otherwise  not  legally  united  in  the  marriage  relation 
became  as  practically  so  as  were  those  of  the  whites.  Thefts, 
drunkenness,  gaming,  and  profanity  were  very  rare  among  the 
colored  people  to  whom  the  missionary  had  access.  There 
were  over  two  hundred  thousand  members  of  color  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  at  the  time  when  General 
Lee  surrendered.  Eor  years,  too,  the  laws  prohibiting  negroes 
learning  to  read  were  of  no  force,  and  only  existed  in  the  letter. 
There  were  many  colored  preachers  who  read  well,  and  em- 
bellished the  Christian  character  with  all  the  graces  of  an 
upright  life,  and  preached  with  power.  Other  Christian 
Churches  had  done  a labor  of  love  for  the  spiritual  melioration 
of  these  once  benighted  sons  and  daughters  of  Ham.  Yet  to 
none  do  they  owe  a greater  debt  of  gratitude  than  to  the 
people  called  “ Methodists.” 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


But  we  should  give  a very  imperfect  view  of  what  Method- 
ism has  done  for  the  negro  if  we  should  confine  it  to  those 
sections  in  which  the  negroes  were  in  large  numbers,  and  to 
that  body  of  Southern  Methodists  which  had  them  specially  in 
charge. 

In  the  larger  cities  of  the  North,  while  there  were  not  many 
negroes,  there  were  enough  to  form  considerable  congregations, 
and  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  Washington, 
negroes  were  gathered  together  in  Methodist  Churches.  There 
were  several  different  Church  organizations  in  the  North,  differ- 
ing only  in  government,  which  were  laboring  to  evangelize 
and  educate  the  colored  race.  These  were  the  Zion  Methodists, 
the  African  Methodists,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
In  every  State  these  Churches  are  found ; and  in  all  of  the 
States  many  of  highest  position  and  of  largest  means  are  con- 
nected with  them. 

Before  the  war  the  African  Methodists  had  a university  in 
Ohio,  and  had  her  quota  of  lettered  and  educated  clergymen. 

The  war  came  on,  but  the  work  among  the  colored  people 
was  not  suspended ; still  the  faithful  missionary  went  to  his 
field ; still  he  breathed  the  often  deadly  malaria  of  the  swamps ; 
still  he  trusted  his  life  and  the  lives  of  his  family  to  a people 
whom  the  world  expected,  with  ax  and  brand,  to  carry  death 
and  ruin  wherever  the  white  man  was  powerless  to  protect 
himseK ; and  still  the  Christian  negro  patiently  waited  for  the 
end.  Even  where  he  loved  his  master,  he  longed  for  freedom ; 
and  yet  he  felt  no  stroke  for  freedom,  dear  as  it  was,  should 
be  a bloody  one.  He  simply  waited.  The  Methodist  had 
always  been  his  friend.  Many  of  the  largest  slave-holders 
were  Methodists,  and  many  were,  like  Nathaniel  Gilbert,  not 
unconcerned  for  their  slaves.  The  Church  had  labored 
bravely,  and  was  now  rewarded  in  the  greatness  of  the  harvest ; 
but  the  war  ended,  and  freedom  came  to  the  negro. 

Other  Methodist  bodies  now  had  full  access  to  the  South, 
and  with  great  zeal  entered  upon  the  work. 


Wesley  and  the  Coloeed  Eace. 


265 


The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  impoverished  by 
the  war,  and  scarcely  able  to  survive  the  shock  she  had  re- 
ceived, was  unable  to  keep  up  the  work  she  had  begun  and 
continued  for  so  long  a time.  She  could  barely  hold  the 
ground  she  had  gained.  During  the  many  years  she  had  been 
directing  the  evangelical  work  among  the  negroes  she  had 
been  training  a body  of  colored  ministers  who  were  ready  to 
take  the  places  vacated  by  the  white  itinerant  and  local 
preachers.  Many  of  these  retained  their  connection  with  the 
Church  South ; many  of  the  ablest  went  with  other  bodies  of 
Methodists.  There  was  now  aroused  a great  interest  in  the 
evangelization  of  the  colored  race  on  the  part  of  the  Northern 
people.  ' They  felt  that  every  obligation  required  that  they 
should  do  something  for  the  negro,  and  at  once  they  began 
their  work.  They  found  the  field  already  prepared  and  white 
to  the  harvest.  Preachers,  leaders,  and  church  buildings  were 
at  hand.  Culture  was  needed,  and  especially  organization  for 
self-help,  for  hitherto  the  colored  people  had  been  provided 
for  by  others.  They  must  now  learn  to  provide  for  them- 
selves. The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  a corps 
of  able  bishops  and  a compact  organization.  So  had  the  Zion 
Methodists,  who  differed  from  the  African  Methodists  in  but 
little  more  than  name.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  rich 
and  powerful,  also  came  into  the  field.  The  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  established  schools  and  colleges,  and  has  been 
liberal  and  energetic.  The  other  bodies  have  shown  the  same 
zeal.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  gave  to  the 
colored  Church  which  it  had  set  up — the  Colored  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  of  America — all  the  church  buildings  which 
it  had  erected  for  its  colored  members,  and  saw  it  organized- 
for  important  and  successful  work. 

The  effects  of  Methodism  upon  the  negro  race  in  the  South — 
and  of  the  Baptists,  the  only  other  body  of  Christians  who  had 
done  much  for  the  negroes — was  seen  during  and  after  the  late 
war.  The  negroes  rose  in  no  insurrection.  They  waited  the 


266 


The  Wesley  Memoei^  Volume. 


issue  patiently,  and  wlien  tlie  end  came  and  they  were  free, 
they  accepted  their  freedom  as  of  Grod.  Wo  Christian  leader 
among  them  has  ever  been  accused  of  any  agitation  that  would 
result  in  bloodshed.  They  felt  that  God  in  his  providence  had 
said  to  the  Christians  of  the  South,  “ Take  these  sons  of  Africa 
aud  train  them  for  me,  and  in  my  time  I will  call  for  them.” 
The  two  colored  men  who  have  been  members  of  the  United 
States  Senate — men  who,  according  to  all  testimony,  have  been 
noted  for  moderation,  dignity,  and  purity — were  Methodists 
and  of  Southern  birth.  The  congregations  of  colored  Meth- 
odists thrown  upon  their  own  resources  have  nobly  met  the  de- 
mands, and  now  day-schools,  and  Sunday-schools,  and  churches 
are  found  all  over  the  country. 

There  is  another  result  which  we  ought  not  to  disregard.  It 
is  the  influence  of  Methodism  in  welding  the  hearts  of  the  races 
together.  The  white  Methodists  yearned  toward  their  black 
brethren.  The  preachers  who  had  preached  to  them,  the  Sun- 
day-school teachers  who  had  taught  them,  the  class-leaders  who 
had  examined  them,  and  the  bishops  who  had  watched  over 
them,  could  not  be  hostile  to  them,  and  the  colored  race  could 
not  but  feel  warmly  toward  those  who  had  led  them  to  Christ. 
So,  while  there  was  political  division,  there  was  religious  fel- 
lowship. As  to  the  future  it  is  full  of  promise.  When  Col- 
quitt, the  Democratic  Governor  of  Georgia,  leads  the  religious 
services  of  the  colored  people,  by  far  the  most  of  whom  are 
opposed  to  his  political  views ; and  when  a Republican  colored 
Congressman  from  his  salary  appropriates  a liberal  part  to  sup- 
port the  family  of  his  old  owner  impoverished  by  the  war, 
every  thing  points  to  peace  between  the  races,  and  prosperity 
■ for  both ; and  to  this  end  we  believe  Methodism  has  been  the 
chief  contributor.  That  the  colored  Methodists  will  always 
remain  divided  we  cannot  think,  but,  as  the  Wesleyans  have 
their  separate  families,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopalians  of 
America  theirs,  so  may  the  colored  Methodists  remain  as  they 
are,  differing  in  government,  but  Methodists  in  usage  and  creed. 


Wesley  and  the  Coloeed  Kace. 


267 


Although  so  ■wonderful  a work  has  been  done  in  the  West 
Indies  and  America,  the  negro  race  in  this  western  world  has 
not  alone  been  blessed.  The  tidal  wave  of  blessing  has  swept 
back  upon  the  shores  of  Africa. 

In  Sierra  Leone  a Methodist  missionary  was  found  as  early  as 
1811,  but  twenty  years  before  he  went  there  Methodist  classes 
had  been  formed.  Methodism  extended  in  all  the  coast  coun- 
try, and  in  1839,  nearly  forty  years  ago,  it  reported  over  two 
thousand  members.  Thence  the  W esleyan  missionary  went  to 
Senegambia,  then  to  the  Lower  Coast,  then  to  the  Ashantee 
country,  and  then  to  the  coast  country  near  the  Cape.  America 
sent  missionaries  to  Liberia,  while  English  Methodists  supplied 
their  own  dependencies. 

The  work  in  Africa  has  just  faMy  begun,  and  the  colored 
Churches  in  America  are  looking  -with  eager  eye  to  the  day 
when  they  can  take  their  places  beside  the  great  evangelisms 
of  their  white  brethren. 

To  no  race,  we  repeat,  has  Methodism  been  so  true  a bless- 
ing as  to  the  descendants  of  Ham.  Among  no  people  of  any 
race  has  it  borne  better  fruits ; to  none  does  it  promise  more. 
Among  no  people  is  the  name  of  John  Wesley  more  vener- 
ated, and  no  people  sing  the  songs  of  Charles  Wesley  with 
sweeter  melody  or  heartiness ; and  among  no  others  is  there  a 
purer  type  of  faith  and  love,  or  greater  devotion  to  Wesleyan 
Methodism. 


WESLEY  THE  PEEACHEE. 


ESLET  as  an  Organizer  has  usurped  public  attention  to 


TT  such  an  extent  as  quite  to  obscure  his  character  as  a 
Preacher.  And  yet,  in  his  power  and  success  as  a preacher 
was  laid  the  foundation  of  all  his  power  and  success  as  an  or- 
ganizer. He  was,  in  simple  truth,  the  most  awakening  and 
spiritually  penetrative  and  powerful  preacher  of  his  age. 
"Whitefield  was  more  dramatic,  but  less  intense  ; more  pictorial, 
but  less  close  and  forcible,  less  incisive  and  conclusive.  In 
"Wesley’s  calmer  discourses,  lucid  and  engaging  exposition  laid 
the  basis  for  close  and  searching  application.  In  his  more  in- 
tense utterances,  logic  and  passion  were  fused  into  a white  heat 
of  mingled  argument,  denunciation,  and  appeal,  often  of  a 
most  personal  searchingness,  often  overwhelming  in  its  vehe- 
ment home-thrusts.  Some  idea  may  be  gained  as  to  the  char- 
acter of  his  most  earnest  preaching  from  his  “Appeals  to  Men 
of  Reason  and  Religion,”  especially  the  latter  portions  of  the 
first  of  these,  and  from  his  celebrated  “ Sermon  on  Free 
Grace.” 

I am,  of  course,  aware  that  the  intimation  I have  now  given 
of  the  character  of  Wesley’s  preaching  will  surprise  some,  even 
of  my  well-informed  readers,  and  that  it  is  not  in  accordance 
with  the  popular  conception  of  his  preaching.  It  is- many  years 
since  the  late  Dr.  James  Hamilton,  in  an  article  in  the  “ISTorth 
British  Review,”  gave  pictorial  expression,  in  his  own  vivid 
way,  to  the  mistaken  idea  which  had  grown  up  in  some  quar- 
ters respecting  "Wesley  as  a preacher.  He  sketched  him  as, 
“ after  his  morning  sermon  at  the  Foundery,  mounting  his 
pony,  and  trotting,  and  chatting,  and  gathering  simples,  till  he 
reached  some  country  hamlet,  where  he  would  bait  his  charger, 


% 


Wesley  the  Pkeachee. 


271 


and  talk  through  a little  sermon  with  the  villagers,  and  re- 
mount his  pony  and  trot  away  again.”  A more  unfounded  and 
misleading  specimen  of  fancy  painting  than  this  it  would  be 
impossible  to  imagine ; and  one  can  only  wonder  where  good 
James  Hamilton  picked  up  the  ideas  or  the  fictitious  informa- 
tion which  he  deliberately  put  into  this  written  form.  He  was 
altogether  at  fault  in  his  picture.  As  W esley  was,  during  the 
greater  part  of  his  fife,  simply  the  most  assiduous  horseman, 
and  one  of  the  most  spirited  of  riders,  in  the  kingdom,  riding 
ordinarily  sixty  miles  (let  it  be  remembered  what  the  roads 
were  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century)  day  by  day,  besides 
preaching  twice  or  thrice,  and  not  seldom  riding  eighty  or 
ninety  miles  in  the  day;  so,  for  many  years,  Wesley  was  fre- 
quently a long  preacher — was  often  one  of  the  longest  preach- 
ers of  whom  I have  ever  read  or  heard — and  never  stinted  him- 
self of  time  when  the  feeling  of  the  congregation  seemed  to 
invite  him  to  enlarge,  and  when  opportunity  favored.  Of 
com’se,  however,  he  preached  at  all  times  many  more  short  ser- 
mons than  long  ones,  because  he  preached  commonly  three 
times  every  week-day,  and  four  or  five  times  on  the  Sunday, 
and  because  his  earlier  sermons  on  the  Sunday  needed  to  be 
over  in  time  for  his  hearers  to  attend  Church  service.  But 
when  he  preached  after  Church  hours,  whether  in  the  after- 
noon or  the  later  evening,  and  on  special  occasions,  even 
on  the  week-evening,  he  was,  as  I have  said,  for  many 
years  often  a very  long  preacher.  Let  me  give  some  instances 
of  this,  only  premising  that  all  the  special  instances  of  protract- 
ed preaching  which  I am  about  to  cite  occurred  after  Wesley 
had  taken  to  field-preaching.  He  had  been  an  earnest  and  not 
unfrequently  a long  preacher  before ; but  it  was  not  until  he 
began  to  address  crowds  of  thousands  in  the  open  air  that  his 
larger  and  grander  powers  as  a preacher  were  called  forth. 

About  sixteen  or  seventeen  months  after  his  conversion 
Wesley  writes  in  his  Journal  as  follows,  under  date  October  7, 
1739,  (Sunday :) — 


272 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


Between  five  and  six  I called  upon  all  who  were  present  (about  three 
thousand)  at  Stanley,  on  a little  green,  near  the  town,  to  accept  of  Christ 
as  their  only  “wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption.” 
I was  strengthened  to  speak  as  I never  did  before,  and  continued  speak- 
ing near  two  hours;  the  darkness  of  the  night  and  a little  lightning  not 
lessening  the  number,  but  increasing  the  seriousness  of  the  hearers. 

Wesley  had  already,  before  this  service,  preached  three 
times  on  that  day ; and  he  preached  yet  once  after  it,  “ con- 
cluding the  day  ” by  “ expounding  part  of  our  Lord’s  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  to  a small,  serious  company  at  Ebly.”  Five  serv- 
ices, therefore,  that  day,  and  among  them  one  in  which  his 
sermon  alone  was  nearly  two  hours  long ! 

On  Friday,  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  Wesley  preached  at 
Newport,  in  Monmouthshire,  in  the  mbiming,  and  coming  to 
Cardiff  about  the  middle  oi  the  day,  he  preached  in  the  Shire 
Hall  twice — in  the  afternoon  at  four,  and  again  at  six  in  the 
evening.  He  had  a large  congregation — “ almost  the  whole 
town” — and,  preaching  from  the  six  last  beatitudes,  he  says, 
“ My  heart  was  so  enlarged  I knew  not  how  to  give  over,  so 
that  we  continued  three  hours.” 

On  Sunday,  June  13,  1742,  he  preached  in  Fpworth  church- 
yard— ^his  own  and  his  father’s  Fpworth — standing  on  his  fa- 
ther’s tomb,  and  continued  the  service  “ for  near  three  hours.” 
This  was  his  fourth  service  that  day. 

On  Wednesday,  May  24,  1745,  at  Birstal,  he  “was  con- 
strained to  continue  his  discourse  near  an  hour  longer  than 
usual,  God  pouring  out  such  a blessing  that  he  knew  not  how 
to  leave  off.” 

On  Whitsunday,  the  14th  of  May,  1749,  at  Limerick,  he 
began  to  preach  at  five  in  the  morning,  and,  there  being  no 
liturgy  and  no  lesson,  but  only  the  simplest  service,  three  short 
singings,  one  short  prayer,  and  a final  benediction,  besides  the 
sermon,  he  yet  kept  the  congregation  till  near  seven,  “ hardly 
knowing  how  the  time  went.” 

At  Whitehaven,  on  a Saturday  evening  in  September,  1749, 


Wesley  the  Peeachee. 


273 


he  preached  from  six  to  eight — a simple  week-night  service — 
which  must  have  implied  a sermon  of  not  less  than  an  hour  and 
a quarter  long ; and  at  eight  he  met  the  Society. 

These  instances  may  suffice  to  show  how  Wesley  enlarged 
under  special  influences.  Even  when  he  was  more  than  sev- 
enty years  of  age,  he  sometimes,  on  a week-night  evening,  was 
so  drawn  out  as  to  “ preach  a full  hour  ” in  the  open  air — as, 
for  instance,  in  the  market-place  of  Caermarthen,  on  the  21st 
of  August,  1777. 

In  the  article  to  which  I have  referred  it  was  said,  that  while 
Wesley  could  “talk  through  a little  sermon  with  the  villagers,” 
he  “seldom  coped  with  the  multitude.”  In  the  “Wesleyan 
Methodist  Magazine  ” for  December,  1847,  will 'be  found  a 
paper  from  the  pen  of  the  venerable  Thomas  Jackson,  who  died 
in  1873,  in  the  ninetieth  year  of  his  age,  which  examines  and 
reproves  the  errors  of  that  article.  Mr.  Jackson  thus  deals 
with  the  point  now  under  notice : — 

That  he  preached  to  “ villagers”  so  as  to  be  understood  by  them,  as 
his  blessed  Lord  had  done,  will  not  be  denied ; but  that  he  “ seldom 
coped  with  the  multitude  ” is  notoriously  at  variance  with  fact.  No 
man  was  accustomed  to  address  larger  multitudes  or  with  greater  suc- 
cess. At  Moorfields,  Kennington  Common,  Kingswood,  Bristol,  New- 
castle, in  Cornwall,  Staffordshire,  and  Yorkshire,  immense  multitudes 
of  people  were  accustomed  to  congregate  around  him  through  a long  se- 
ries of  years,  and  that  with  undiminished  interest ; and  it  may  be  fairly 
questioned  whether  any  minister  in  modern  ages  has  been  instrumental 
in  effecting  a greater  number  of  conversions.  He  possessed  all  the  essen- 
tial requisites  of  a great  preacher;  and  in  nothing  was  he  inferior  to  his 
eminent  friend  and  contemporary,  except  in  voice  and  manner.  In  re- 
spect of  matter,  language,  and  arrangement,  his  sermons  were  vastly 
superior  to  those  of  Mr.  Whitefield.  Those  persons  who  judge  of  Mr. 
Wesley’s  ministry  from  the  sermons  which  he  preached  and  published  in 
the  decline  of  life,  greatly  mistake  his  real  character.  Till  he  was  enfee- 
bled by  age,  his  discourses  were  not  at  all  remarkable  for  their  brevity. 
They  were  often  extended  to  a considerable  length,  as  we  learn  from  his 
Journal ; and  yet,  according  to  his  oft-repeated  statements,  he  did  not 
know  how  to  leave  off  and  dismiss  the  people,  for  his  mind  was  full  of 


274 


The  Wesley  Memoetal  Volume. 


evangelical  matter,  and  Ins  heart  was  richly  charged  with  heavenly  zeal. 
In  a sense  higher  than  ever  entered  into  the  thouglits  of  Archimedes,  as 
he  himself  states,  he  was  often  ready  to  exclaim,  when  addressing  vast 
multitudes  in  his  Master’s  name,  “ Give  me  the  where  to  stand,  and  1 
will  move  the  world ! ” • 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  Thomas  Jackson,  the  author  of  the 
full  and  admirable  “Life  of  Charles  Wesley,”  and  the  very 
accurate  editor  of  Wesley’s  voluminous  works;  who  was  him- 
self born  before  the  death  of  Wesley;  who  made  all  that  re- 
lated to  him  his  hfe-study ; who  knew  well  some  of  the  men 
who  had  known  Wesley  best;  and  who  should  himself  have 
accomplished  for  the  life  of  John  Wesley  what  he  has  so  ex- 
cellently done  as  the  biographer  of  Charles.  The  case  being 
as  Mr.  Jackson  has  stated  it,  and  as  the  extracts  from  the  Jour- 
nal, which  have  been  given,  prove  it  to  have  been,  it  is  proper 
to  explain  how  the  erroneous  ideas  which  have  been  current  as 
to  the  character  of  his  preaching  have  originated.  Three 
causes  may  be  assigned  to  account  for  them. 

One  is  hinted  at  by  Mr.  Jackson  in  the  extract  we  have  given. 
Mr.  Wesley’s  was  a very  long  life.  Those  of  his  people  who 
had  known  him  in  his  prime  of  strength  and  energy  had  died 
before  himself.  The  traditions  as  to  his  preaching  which  have 
been  current  during  the  last  half  century  have  been  mostly 
derived  from  those  who  had  only  heard  him  in  his  extreme  old 
age,  and,  in  many  instances,  on  his  hasty  visits  from  place  to 
place,  when  he  would  preach  at  seven  o’clock  on  the  week- 
night  evening,  or  at  five  o’clock  in  the  morning. 

But  another,  and,  perhaps,  more  infiuential  cause,  has  been, 
that  an  inference  as  to  the  length  and  style  of  his  spoken  ser- 
mons has  been  erroneously  drawn  from  his  published  sermons. 
How  unwarranted  any  such  inference  must  be,  may  be  shown 
by  a remark  of  his  elder  brother  Samuel,  made  at  the  very 
beginning  of  Wesley’s  preaching  career,  and  before  he  had 
begun  field-preaching.  In  a letter  addressed  to  Charles  Wes- 
ley, but  which  refers  to  both  dhe  brothers,  Samuel  says,  under 


Wesley  the  Peeacher. 


275 


date  of  December  1,  1738 : “ There  is  a most  monstrous 
appearance  of  dishonesty  among  you ; your  sermons  are 
generally  three  quarters  of  an  hour  or  an  hour  long  in  the 
pulpit,  but  when  printed  are  short  snips  ; rather  notes  than 
sermons.” 

If  this  was  the  case  so  soon  after  the  brothers  had  broken 
away  from  the  bondage  of  sermon-reading  in  the  pulpit,  it 
is  certain  that,  in  after  years,  except  in  special  cases — such 
as  a sermon  to  be  preached  before  the  University — Wesley’s 
written  sermons,  which  were  ordinarily  compositions  having 
a definite  purpose  of  theological  statement  and  definition, 
must  be  regarded  as  altogether  different  in  character  from 
his  preached  sermons,  delivered  extempore,  often  after  httle 
or  no  written  preparation.  Wesley  the  Preacher  was  teth- 
ered by  no  lines  of  written  preparation  and  verbal  recollec- 
tion ; he  spoke  with  extraordinary  power  of  utterance  out  of 
the  fullness  of  his  heart. 

StiU  another  cause  of  the  error  I have  been  exposing  must 
probably  be  found  in  the  urgency  with  which  Wesley,  in 
various  places,  enjoins  on  his  preachers,  as  a rule,  to  preach 
short,  and  the  emphatic  way  in  which  he  insists  to  them  on 
the  evils  of  long  preaching.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  great  majority  of  Wesley’s  preachers  were  men 
whose  stock  of  knowledge  was  very  small,  and  who  had  re- 
ceived no  intellectual  training  whatever.  They  resembled  the 
plainest  and  most  fervid  of  the  Methodist  local  preachers  or  ex- 
horters  of  to-day.  The  same  rule  could  not  be  apphcable  to 
him  as  to  them.  But,  indeed,  the  great  Methodist  preachers 
of  Wesley’s  lifetime — ^his  most  powerful  lay  helpers — were,  as 
a matter  of  fact,  none  of  them  short  preachers,  while  most  of 
them  were  often,  if  not  usually,  very  long  preachers.  Such 
were  Walsh  and  Bradbnrn  and  Benson  and  Clarke. 

The  fact,  at  any  rate,  is  as  I have  stated  it,  so  far  as  respects 
the  preaching  of  Wesley;  and  I may  add  in  passing,  that  for 
not  a few  years  Charles  Wesley  was  as  long  and  often  as  pow- 


276 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


erful  a preacher,  even  as  he  was  as  hard-riding  and  hard-work- 
ing an  itinerant  evangelist,  as  his  brother  John. 

In  showing  that  Wesley,  instead  of  being  a talker  of  neat 
little  sermons,  was,  in  his  prime  of  life,  frequently  a long 
preacher,  and  sometimes  one  of  the  longest  preachers  of  whom 
we  have  any  knowledge,  I have  not  only  shown  how  mistaken 
has  been  the  popular  tradition  respecting  his  special  character- 
istics as  a preacher,  but  I have  also  proved  that  there  must 
have  been  a remarkable  charm  about  his  preaching.  Hone  but 
a very  eloquent  speaker  could  have  held  thousands  of  people 
intently  listening  to  him  for  two  or  three  hours  together  in  the 
open  air.  I have  to  add  that,  as  I have  already  intimated,  he 
was  a singularly  powerful  preacher.  Southey  has  given  con- 
clusive evidence  as  to  this  point,  in  the  interesting  chapter  in 
the  first  volume  of  his  biography  of  Wesley,  entitled,  “ Scenes 
of  Itinerancy.”  Ho  one,  indeed,  has  done  such  justice  as 
Southey  to  Wesley’s  gifts  as  a preacher.  Hot  only  in  the 
“ Life  of  Wesley,”  but  in  “The  Doctor,”  and  in  his  “Com- 
monplace Book,”  he  has  given  evidence  of  the  careful  study 
and  the  fuU  appreciation  with  which  he  has  realized  the 
preaching  powers  of  Wesley.  The  able  and  eloquent  Ameri- 
can historian,  Stevens,  gives  some  striking  incidents  to  show 
how  great  that  power  was.  “ In  the  midst  of  a mob,  ‘ I called,’ 
Wesley  writes,  ‘for  a chair;  the  winds  were  hushed,  and  all 
was  calm  and  still ; my  heart  was  filled  with  love,  my  eyes 
with  tears,  and  my  mouth  with  arguments.  They  were 
amazed ; they  were  ashamed ; they  were  melted  down ; they 
devoured  every  word.’  That,”  says  Dr.  Stevens,  “ must  have 
been, genuine  eloquence.”  Doubtless  it  was,  and  the  very 
words — the  vivid,  affecting  style  of  the  description  here  quoted 
from  Wesley  himself — may  serve  to  intimate  what  was  part  of 
his  special  power  as  a speaker. 

Like  many  terse,  nervous  writers,  Wesley  was  not  only  a 
nervous  but  a copious  speaker.  His  words  fiowed  in  a direct, 
steady,  powerful,  sometimes  a rapid,  stream,  and  every  word 


Wesley  the  Preachee. 


277 


told,  because  every  word  bore  its  proper  meaning.  With  all 
the  fullness  of  utterance,  the  gennine  eloquence,  there  was  no 
tautology,  no  diffuseness  of  style,  no  dilution.  Close  logical, 
high  verbal,  adequate  philosophic,  culture  had,  in  the  case  of 
Wesley,  laid  the  basis  of  clear,  vivid,  direct,  and  copious  ex- 
tempore powers  of  speech.  Culture  and  discipline,  such  as  had 
prepared  Cicero  for  his  oratorical  successes,  helped  to  make 
Wesley  the  powerful,  persuasive,  at  times  the  thrilling  and 
electrifying,  preacher  which  he  nndoubtedly  was. 

What  a picture  is  that  given  of  the  effects  of  Wesley’s 
preaching  in  connection  with  his  famous  visit  to  Epworth ! 
For  eight  evenings  in  succession,  in  that  splendid  early  sum- 
mer season,  he  preached  to  vast  crowds  from  his  father’s  tomb, 
and  his  last  discourse  was  his  most  powerful  and  prolonged, 
and  was  addressed  to  the  largest  multitude.  The  circum- 
stance, however,  to  which  I refer,  took  place  not  on  the  last 
day  of  his  preaching,  but  the  day  immediately  preceding,  (Sat- 
urday, June  12,  1742.)  “While  I was  speaking  several 
dropped  down  as  dead ; and  among  the  rest  such  a cry  was 
heard  of  sinners  groaning  for  the  righteousness  of  faith  as  al- 
most drowned  my  voice.”  “I  observed  a gentleman  there 
who  was  remarkable  for  not  pretending  to  be  of  any  religion 
at  all.  I was  informed  he  had  not  been  at  public  worship  of 
any  kind  for  upward  of  thirty  years.  Seeing  him  stand  as  mo- 
tionless as  a statue,  I asked  him  abruptly,  ‘ Sir,  are  you  a sin- 
ner ? ’ He  replied  with  a deep  and  broken  voice,  ‘ Sinner 
enough ; ’ and  continued  staring  upward  till  his  wife  and  a 
servant  or  two,  who  were  all  in  tears,  put  him  into  his  chaise 
and  carried  him  home.”  The  stricken,  staring,  statue-like  mas- 
ter, the  weeping  wife  and  servants— what  a picture,  I say, 
have  we  here ! 

That  Wesley’s  preaching  was  attended  by  more  powerful 
and  penetrating  immediate  results  than  that  of  any  of  his 
famous  contemporary  Methodist  preachers,  is  notorious  ; but  it 

has  been  thought  difficult  to  understand  this.  He  was  not,  as  I 
18 


278 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


have  said,  a pictorial  or  dramatic  preacher,  like  his  great  preach- 
ing contemporary,  Whitefield  ; but  vdiereas  Whitefield,  power- 
ful preacher  as  he  was,  was  yet  more  popular  than  powerful, 
Wesley,  poj)ular  preacher  as  he  was,  was  yet  more  powerful  in 
comparison  with  his  fellows  than  he  was  popular. 

There  is  really,  however,  no  special  mystery  about  the  power 
of  Wesley’s  preaching.  All  we  know  of  his  earlier  preachina:, 
under  special  circumstances,  Avould  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
he  could  not  but  be  a singularly  powerful  preacher.  His  invaria- 
ble terseness  of  phrase  and  style  prevented  him  from  ever  being 
tedious.  His  full  and  ready  flow  of  thoughts,  as  well  as  of  fit 
words,  carried  his  audience  with  him.  He  was  most  pleasant 
in  manner,  pellucid  in  statement,  fresh  and  lively  throughout, 
and  so  frequent,  so  continuous,  I might  almost  say,  in  his  per- 
sonal application  of  what  he  was  saying,  making  his  doctrine  to 
tell  at  every  point  throughout  his  discourse,  that  he  never  al- 
lowed the  attention  of  his  congregation  to  slumber.  The  cele- 
brated Ivennicott,  at  that  time  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford, 
heard  Wesley  preach  his  last  sermon  before  the  University,  in 
1744,  a fiaming,  searching,  intrepidly  faithful  sermon.  Apart 
from  its  severity,  he  admired  the  sermon  greatly,  and  was 
evidently  very  much  impressed  by  the  personality  of  the 
preacher.  “ His  black  hair,”  he  says,  “ quite  smooth,  and 
parted  very  exactly,  added  to  a peculiar  composure  in  his 
countenance,  showed  him  to  be  an  uncommon  man.”  He 
speaks  of  his  “ agreeable  emphasis  ” in  reading.  He  refers 
with  approval  to  “many  jast  invectives”  in  his  sermon,  but 
with  disapproval  to  “ the  zeal  and  unbounded  satire  with  which 
he  fired  his  address  when  he  came  to  what  he  called  his  plain, 
practical  conclusion.”  If  “ his  censures  ” had  only  been 
“moderated,”  and  certain  portions  omitted,  Kennicott  says, 
“I  think  his  discourse,  as  to  style  and  delivery,  would  have 
been  uncommonly  pleasing  to  others  as  well  as  to  myself.” 
He  adds,  “ He  is  allowed  to  be  a man  of  great  parts.” 

Cowper’s  lines  on  Wesley  will  not  be  forgotten  while  we  are 


Wesley  the  Preacher. 


279 


on  the  subject  of  his  preaching.  They  were  written  when  the 
fire  and  flame  of  W esley’s  early  manhood  were  long  gone  by. 
He  speaks  of  him  as  one — 

“Who,  when  occasion  justified  its  use, 

Had  wit  as  bright  as  ready  to  produce;  * 

Could  fetch  from  records  of  an  earlier  age, 

Or  from  philosophy’s  enlightened  page. 

His  rich  materials,  and  regale  your  ear 
With  strains  it  was  a privilege  to  hear. 

Yet,  above  all,  his  luxury  supreme. 

And  his  chief  glory,  was  the  gospel  theme : 

There  he  was  copious  as  old  Greece  or  Rome, 

His  happy  eloquence  seemed  there  at  home; 

Ambitious  not  to  shine  or  to  excel. 

But  to  treat  justly  what  he  loved  so  well.” 

I apprehend  that  the  last  four  lines  give  a most  true  and 
happy  description  of  Wesley’s  ordinary  ministry,  while  Kenni- 
cott’s  description  enables  us  in  some  measure  to  understand  the 
fire  and  intensity  which  characterized  his  preaching  on  special 
occasions,  and  in  the  prime  of  his  life. 

Dr.  Stevens  has  dwelt  on  the  authority  with  which  W esley 
spoke,  the  calm  command  which  belonged  to  his  presence  and 
gave  weight  and  force  to  his  words.  Ho  doubt  there  was  this 
characteristic  always  about  Wesley’s  person  and  presence. 
Gambold  testifies  to  the  same  effect  in  regard  to  Wesley  in  his 
early  Oxford  days.  Calm,  serene,  methodical,  as  Wesley  was, 
there  was  a deep,  steadfast  fire  of  earnest  purpose  about  him ; 
and,  notwithstanding  the  smallness  of  his  stature,  there  was  an 
elevation  of  character  and  of  bearing  visible  to  all  with  whom 
he  had  intercourse,  which  gave  him  a wonderful  power  of  com- 
mand, however  quiet  were  his  words,  and  however  placid  his 
deportment.  But  the  extraordinary  power  of  his  preaching, 
while  it  owed  something,  no  doubt,  to  this  tone  and  presence 
of  calm,  unconscious  authority,  was  due  mainly,  essentially,  to 
the  searching  and  importunate  closeness  and  fidelity  with  which 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


lie  dealt  witli  tlie  consciences  of  his  hearers,  and  the  pas- 
sionate vehemence  with  which  he  urged  and  entreated  them 
to  turn  to  Christ  and  be  saved.  Pie  had  not  the  “gift 
of  tears,”  as  Whitefield  had,  or  as  Charles  Wesley  had,  whose 
preaching  appears  to  have  been,  in  several  resjiects,  interme- 
diate in  character  between  that  of  his  brother  John  and  of 
his  friend  Whitefield ; yet  Wesley  was  often  moved  to  tears 
as  he  pleaded  with  his  hearers,  and  oftener  still  was  the 
means  of  moving  multitudes  that  heard  him  to  tears.  At 
times,  however,  his  onset  in  applying  his  subject  to  the 
lives,  the  cases,  the  consciences  of  his  hearers,  was  too  intense, 
too  direct,  too  electrical  to  be  answered  by  tears.  His  words 
went  with  a sudden  and  startling  shock  straight  home  into  the 
very  core  of  the  guilty  sinner’s  consciousness  and  heart,  and 
cries,  shrieks,  sudden  fits,  cases  of  fainting  and  insensibility, 
men  and  women  “ dropping  down  as  dead,”  as  if  they  had 
been  physically  struck  by  a blow  from  some  terrible  engine,  by 
a stone  from  a catapult,  or  a ball  from  a cannon,  were  the  fre- 
quent consequence.  And  yet  it  was  not  that  Wesley  used 
stronger  words  than  other  preachers ; not  that  he  used  high 
word-coloring  or  exaggerated  expressions ; the  contrary  was 
the  case.  Rather,  it  was  that,  using  simpler  and  fewer  words 
than  others  to  express  the  truth — going  straighter  to  his  pur- 
pose, and  with  less  word-foliage,  less  verbiage,  to  shroud  or 
overshadow  his  meaning — the  real,  essential  truth  was  more 
easily  and  directly  seen  and  felt  by  the  hearer.  There  was 
less  of  human  art  or  device ; the  language  was  simpler  and 
more  transparent ; and  so  the  truth  shone  more  clearly  and 
fully  through.  There  was  less  in  language  of  what  “ man’s 
wisdom  teacheth ; ” less  of  what  was  fanciful,  or  elaborate,  or 
artificial,  and  therefore  there  was  more  of  the  Spirit’s  opera- 
tion ; more  of  “ the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power.” 
So  far  as  any  mere  written  composition  can  give  an  idea  of  how 
Wesley  preached  when  his  aim  was  specially  to  convince  and 
awaken,  perhaps  his  last  sermon  before  the  University  and  the 


Wesley  the  Preacher. 


281 


wonderful  “applications”  contained  in  Ms  first  “Appeal  to 
Men  of  Reason  and  Religion  ” may  help  ns  to  sucli  an  idea ; 
but  it  must  always  be  remembered  that  no  written  composi- 
tions can  really  approach  the  energy  and  directness  with  which 
Wesley  preached  when  vast  crowds  himg  upon  his  lips,  to 
whom  he  was  declaring,  as  in  Epworth  church-yard,  “ the 
whole  counsel  of  God.” 

Of  the  clear,  strong,  intense  style  in  which  Wesley  could,  if 
he  felt  it  to  be  necessary,  combine  doctrinal  argument  with 
declamatory  invective  of  the  most  scathing  terribleness,  we 
have  an  instance  in  his  famous  sermon  on  “ Free  Grace.”  But 
for  the  publication  of  that  sermon  we  should  at  the  present 
time  have  had  no  conception  of  what  his  powers  were  in  that 
kind ; and  it  was  owing  only  to  very  special  circumstances,  and 
much  against  his  hking,  that  Wesley  felt  himself  constrained 
to  pubhsh  that  sermon. 

It  is  well  known  that  Dr.  Johnson  had  a great  reverence 
for  Wesley,  and  much  enjoyed  his  society.  In  a letter  to 
Wesley  himself,  he  compliments  him  as  “Plato.”  Cowper, 
also',  in  the  fines  we  have  quoted,  refers  to  Wesley’s  power  in 
social  conversation  of  bringing  forth  the  treasures  of  ancient 
philosophy.  Let  any  competent  judge  read  the  plainly 
written  but  elevated  and  beautiful  sermon  on  “ The  Original 
of  the  Law,”  and  he  will  at  once  recognize  the  impress  of  a 
mind  which,  while  it  avoided  all  display  of  learning,  was 
deeply  imbued  with  the  training  and  results  of  philosophy — of 
the  highest  and  best  philosophy,  whether  ancient  or  modern — 
so  far  as  philosophy  had  advanced  in  Wesley’s  day. 

Wesley  had  been  an  excellent  preacher  of  his  kind,  though 
not  as  yet  evangelical,  before  he  went  to  America.  His  beau- 
tiful sermon  on  the  “ Circumcision  of  the  Heart,”  preached 
before  the  University  of  Oxford  in  1Y33,  is  one  of  several  ser- 
mons included  in  his  “Works,”  which  afford  decisive  evidence 
on  this  point.  His  style  also — a style  which  the  best  judges, 
such  as  Southey,  have  agreed  in  greatly  admiring,  and  which. 


282  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 

indeed,  no  one  who  understands  and  loves  clear,  pure,  pleasant 
English  can  fail  to  admire — seems  to  have  been  already  formed 
at  that  period,  although  its  full  power  was  not  as  yet  developed ; 
it  was  awaiting  development  under  the  inspiration  of  full  Chris- 
tian tenderness  and  zeal.  But  it  was  not  until  after  he  had 
become  Bohler’s  disciple  that  preaching  came  to  be  recognized 
and  felt  by  himself  to  be  his  great  work,  or  that  the  character- 
istic power  of  his  preaching  was  brought  out.  It  was  his  per- 
ception of  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  which  not  only 
transformed  him  thereafter  into  a preacher,  as  his  first  and 
greatest  calling,  but  which  also  breathed  a new  soul  into  his 
preaching.  When  he  began  to  preach  this  doctrine  his 
hearers  generally  felt  that  a new  power  accompanied  his 
preaching ; and,  at  the  same  time,  the  clergy  and  the  orthodox 
Pharisaic  hearers  felt  that  a dangerous,  startling,  revolutionary 
doctrine  was  being  proclaimed.  Wherever  he  preached 
crowds  flowed  in  larger  and  larger  volume  to  hear  him ; but, 
at  the  same  time,  church  after  church  was  shut  against  him. 
As  Gambold  wrote  in  a letter  to  Wesley,  it  is  the  doctrine  of 
salvation  by  faith  which  seems  to  constitute  the  special  offense 
of  the  cross.  This,  at  any  rate,  in  W esley’s  days,  was  the  one 
doctrine  which  clergymen  and  orthodox  church-goers  would 
not  endure.  Short  of  this  almost  any  thing  might  be  preached, 
but  on  no  account  this.  The  University  of  Oxford  would 
endure  the  high  doctrine  as  to  Christian  attainment  and  conse- 
cration taught  in  the  sermon  on  “ The  Circumcision  of  the 
Heart,”  but  it  would  not  endure  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
faith,  which  ten  years  later,  the  same  preacher  would  have  set 
forth  before  his  University.  The  reason  would  seem  to  be 
twofold : the  evangelical  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  strips 
men  altogether  of  their  own  righteousness,  laying  them  all  low 
at  the  same  level  in  presence  of  God’s  holiness  and  of  Christ’s 
atonement,  as  needing  divine  pardon  and  divine  renewal;  and 
it  also  teaches  the  “ real  presence  ” of  the  divine  Spirit,  insists 
upon  the  present  supernatural  power  of  God  to  inspire  repent- 


Wesley  the  Peeacher. 


283 


ance  and  faitlx  and  to  renew  the  soul — the  present  supernatural 
power  of  Jesus  Christ  to  save  the  sinner.  Such  a doctrine  is 
“ spiritual ; ” it  enforces  the  living  power  and  presence  of 
spiritual  reahties ; it  is  accordingly  “ foohshness  ” and  a 
“ stumbhng  block  ” to  the  “ natural  man.”  The  “ natural 
man”  receiveth  not  these  “things  of  the  Spirit  of  God.”  The 
doctrine  of  high  Christian  holiness  may  be  regarded  as  but 
another,  and  the  highest,  form  of  moral  philosophy,  of  select 
and  virtuous  Christian  culture.  The  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
faith,  through  grace,  is  one  which  humbles  utterly  the  pride  of 
human  understanding,  and  of  merely  human  virtue.  It  was 
when  Wesley  became  the  preacher  of  this  doctrine  that  he 
became  a truly  and  fully  Christian  preacher.  It  was  not  a new 
doctrine ; it  was  the  doctrine  of  the  apostles,  the  reformers, 
and  even  of  the  homihes  and  formularies  of  the  Church  of 
England  itself ; but  in  a sense-bound  and  heartless  age  it  had 
been  almost  utterly  forgotten.  To  revive  it  by  the  ordinance 
of  preaching  became  henceforth  Wesley’s  great  life-work.  He 
became,  above  all  things,  himself  a preacher,  and  he  founded 
a preaching  institute ; with  preaching,  however,  always  associ- 
ating close  personal  and  individual  fellowship. 

The  whole  of  Methodism  unfolded  from  this  beginning.  To 
promote  preaching  and  fellowship  was  the  one  work,  fellowship 
including  a perpetual  individual  testimony  of  Christian  believ- 
ers as  to  salvation  by  grace,  through  faith.  Preaching  and  fel- 
lowship— this  was  all  from  first  to  last ; true  preaching,  and 
true,  vital,  Christian  fellowship,  which  involved  opposition  to 
untrue  preaching,  and  to  fellowship  not  truly  and  fully  Chris- 
tian. From  this  unfolded  all  Wesley’s  life  and  history.  His 
union  for  a season. with  the  Moravians,  and  then  his  separation 
from  them,  when  their  teaching  became,  for  the  time,  mixed 
up  and  entangled  with  demoralizing  error ; the  foundation  of 
his  own  Society — that  of  “ the  people  called  Methodists ; ” his 
separation  from  his  brother  Whitefield  and  from  Calvinism ; 
his  field  preachings  ; his  separate  meeting-houses  and  separate 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


communions ; liis  class-meetings,  and  band-meetings,  and  all 
tlie  discipline  of  bis  Society ; bis  conference  and  bis  brotber- 
bood  of  itinerant  Methodist  preachers;  bis  increasing  irregu- 
larities as  a Churchman ; bis  ordinations,  and  the  virtual  though 
not  formal  or  voluntary  separation  of  bis  Societies  from  the 
Church  of  England ; all  resulted  from  the  same  beginning — 
from  bis  embracing  “ the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith.” 


WESLEY  AS  AN  ITINEEANT. 


KF.  absolute  demonstration  of  John  Wesley’s  great  work 


JL  is,  tbat  it  stands  the  scrutiny  of  the  age  and  the  test  of 
time.  During  his  life  he  was  diversely  interpreted.  Well 
nigh  worshiped  by  his  adherents  as  a saint,  he  was  ridiculed 
and  denounced  by  others  as  an  enthusiast,  a fanatic,  a schis- 
matic. Even  those  who  admired  the  man,  and  pondered  with 
wonder  his  tireless  labors  and  unexampled  achievements, 
misconceived  his  motives,  and  utterly  failed  to  compre- 
hend his  true  character.  The  grandeur  and  magnitude  of  a 
mountain  do  not  impress  us  while  standing  in  its  shadow  as 
when,  from  some  conspicuous  eminence,  the  eye  takes  in  its 
vastness  and  altitude.  Comparison  comes  in  to  aid  us  in  our 
estimate,  and  the  prominence  which  was  hidden  by  nearness  of 
position  looms  up  from  the  distant  point  of  observation.  The 
men  of  Wesley’s  time  did  not  and  could  not  understand  him. 
The  antagonisms  of  his  day  provoked  prejudices,  exaggerated 
alike  his  virtues  and  his  infirmities,  and  the  controversies 
about  his  opinions  and  methods  left  contemporaneous  judgment 
suspended  and  vibrating  with  the  unresting  winds  which  blew 
upon  him.  Between  friends  and  foes  opinions  were  so  conflict- 
ing and  extreme  as  to  leave  the  intermediate  classes  in  blank 
dubiety. 

The  peculiar  sanctity  of  the  man,  extravagant,  as  the  world 
thought,  yet  always  consistent  with  itself — the  spirituality  of 
his  experience  and  his  teachings,  in  offensive  contrast  with  the 
prevailing  type  of  religion — his  broad  views  of  the  gospel,  its 
power  and  mission,  in  opposition  to  the  narrow  and  partial 
theology  then  prevalent — all  these  gave  to  his  opponents  a great 
advantage  in  turning  the  popular  current  against  him.  Hence 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Wesley  was  a well-abused  man.  Hated,  persecuted,  maligned, 
be  was  sifted  as  wheat ; and  yet,  surviving  all  these  agitations, 
and  holding  on  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  he  lived  to  see  the 
inauguration  of  that  change  in  thought  and  feeling  which  has 
at  last  assigned  him  a place  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  thus 
secures  a posthumous  immortality  to  him,  who,  at  one  time,  by 
the  great  majority  of  a lifeless  Church  and  an  ungodly  nation, 
was  not  considered  fit  to  live  at  all. 

The  original  fact,  long  doubted,  denied,  and  obscured  by  mis- 
conceptions, false  charges,  and  direct  efforts  to  break  down  his 
infiuence  and  authority,  has  now  crystallized  in  the  universal 
conviction  that  he  was  a great  man,  a representative  man  ; great 
in  his  natural  endowments,  his  scholarship  and  culture,  and  yet 
greater  still  in  the  singleness  of  his  consecration  and  the  un- 
wearied outlay  of  all  his  powers  for  the  good  of  his  race.  For 
self-denial,  heroic  devotion,  and  protracted  service,  there  is 
hardly  a peer  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  human  history. 

However  great  Wesley  was  as  an  organizer — whatever  his 
administrative  talents  as  an  original  gift,  and  however  these 
were  developed,  by  early  training  in  his  father’s  house,  by  his 
mother’s  genius  and  piety,  and  his  long  scholastic  career — yet 
his  success  was  the  result,  not  so  much  of  his  real  statesman- 
ship, as  of  the  subordination  of  his  plans  to  apostolic  prece- 
dent and  providential  suggestion.  But  this  may  be  rightfully 
called  the  truest  and  highest  ecclesiastical  statesmanship.  The 
church  system  of  which  he  was  the  founder  was  not  the  elab- 
oration of  his  intellect not  spun  and  woven  from  a pattern 
conceived  in  his  own  mind ; but  was  adopted  in  detail,  one 
thing  at  a time,  and  at  long  intervals,  as  experience  intimated 
a want  or  providence  opened  the  way.  Those  familiar  with 
the  rise  and  progress  of  Methodism  will  see  the  reason  and 
propriety  of  these  views.  Leaving  out  the  many  illustrations 
which  Wesley’s  history  furnishes,  this  paper  must  be  confined 
to  a single  fact  and  feature — the  itinerancy. 

Called  of  God  to  preach,  authenticated  by  the  Church,  and 


Wesley  as  ak  Itesteeant. 


287 


jet  disowned,  rejected,  and  driven  ont  bj  the  ecclesiastics, 
Wesley  bad  no  alternative  but  infidelity  to  bis  trust  and  bis 
convictions  of  duty^  or,  leaving  tbe  bouses  of  worship,  to  go 
out  into  tbe  highways  and  hedges.  His  first  circuits  were 
improvised.  He  bad  no  plan  but  readiness  to  enter  every 
open  door,  to  obey  tbe  call  of  tbe  people,  to  be  instant  in 
season  and  out  of  season.  Turning  away  from  settled  con- 
gregations, organized  with  stated  services,  be  went  to  tbe 
outcasts,  tbe  overlooked,  the  forgotten.  He  could  not  fore- 
cast tbe  future,  and  bad  no  idea  “ wbereunto  this  thing  would 
grow.”  Obedient  to  tbe  heavenly  vision,  and  working  in 
harmony  with  tbe  spirit  of  all  grace  and  truth,  “mightily 
grew  tbe  word  of  God  and  prevailed.”  Tbe  success  of  tbe 
movement  necessitated  provision  to  conserve  its  fruits.  God 
met  the  emergency  by  thrusting  out  helpers  and  co-laborers. 
How  Wesley  hesitated  about  the  recognition  of  these  irregu- 
lar, unordained  men,  and  bow  be  was  overcome  by  tbe  sage 
and  timely  warning  of  bis  mother,  are  facts  on  record,  “ known 
and  read  of  all.” 

Right  here  tbe  plan  began  to  unfold  and  assume  shape ; 
and  it  grew  and  grew,  and  is  growing  yet — all  its  possibib- 
ties  being  still  future.  More  than  a century  of  work  and 
progress  has  not  exhausted  its  vitality,  or  revealed  any  want 
of  adaptation  to  tbe  changing  phases  of  human  society. 

Outside  of  Methodism,  the  idea  always  prevailed  that  itiner- 
ancy was  an  admirable  pioneer  arrangement,  well  suited  to  a 
frontier  population,  to  new  settlements,  to  a crude  state  of 
social  life,  but  wholly  unfit  for  stable,  well-established  com- 
munities.  On  the  basis  of  this  plausible  view  the  Methodist 
ChTirch  has  been  regarded  as  a forerunner,  whose  sole  func- 
tion was  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  settled  pastorate  of  other 
denominations.  We  do  not  mean  to  assail  other  people  or 
their  ways,  or  to  dogmatize  in  behalf  of  Methodism;  but  the 
argument  for  a settled  ministry,  or  even  for  a long  term, 
has  always  seemed  to  ignore  the  self-conserving  power  of  a 


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true  Christianity  as  found  in  the  regenerate,  and  doubtless, 
as  originally  intended  to  operate  for  the  protection  of  the 
local  interests  of  Christ’s  kingdom.  The  ministry,  according 
to  the  pattern  shoMm  ns  in  the  gospel,  were  to  be  left  free 
for  the  work  of  aggression  upon  the  world  of  unbelievers ; 
but  the  policy  of  the  Churches  generally  has  reversed  the 
divine  order.  They  have  limited  the  preacher’s  field— cir- 
cumscribed him — merged  the  herald  in  the  pastor,  and  taught 
those  who  ought  to  live  piously  by  their  personal  faith  and 
communion  with  God,  and  through  active  labor  in  their  local 
sphere  for  the  benefit  of  others,  to  be  dependent,  and  therefore 
feeble  and  inefficient.  The  sheep  ought  to  do  their  own  graz- 
ing, and  not  wait  to  be  fed  by  hand.  The  Methodist  Church, 
in  order,  as  it  is  assumed,  to  compete  with  other  denominations, 
has  largely  modified  her  peculiar  system,  and  by  every  modifi- 
cation enfeebled  herself.  Almost  every  extension  of  the  pas- 
toral term  is  a loss  of  aggressive  power — of  the  real  efidciency 
of  the  ministry  in  building  up  the  Church— without  adequate 
compensation  in  the  conservation  of  her  members.  This  is  not 
the  place  to  discuss  the  question  now  agitating  the  Church  in 
some  sections ; nevertheless,  the  thoughts  which  follow  may 
prove  suggestive,  and  help  to  a right  settlement. 

“ Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.”  ISTothing  but  an  itinerant  ministry  can  execute  this 
command.  So  the  apostles  seem  to  have  understood  it,  and, 
though  few  in  number,  they  well  nigh  fulfilled  the  commission 
in  their  day.  The  history  of  the  Church  all  along  has  vei’ified 
the  general  idea  of  the  indispensableness  of  the  itinerancy,  in 
that  rehgion  has  been  stagnant  and  declined  when  the  ministry 
lacked  aggressiveness,  and  progressive  when  they  left  their 
nests  and  stretched  into  “ the  regions  beyond.”  The  mission- 
ary operations  of  the  day  is  the  great  representative  fact  of  the 
Christian  religion  now ; and  the  signs  of  life  and  fruitfulness 
at  home  are  but  the  reflex  results  of  zeal  expended  abroad.  ISTo 
Church  can  prosper  that  does  not  work  outside  of  her  private 


Wesley  as  an  Itinerant. 


289 


iuclosures.  The  attempt  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  herself 
■without  enlargement  and  succession,  made  sure  by  aggressive 
zeal  and  enterprise,  ■will  be  at  the  cost  of  spiritual  po'wer,  and 
sooner  or  later  of  life  itself. 

As  a rule  and  a policy  the  settled  pastorate  (and,  of  course, 
all  approximations  to  it  are  subject  to  the  same  discount)  is 
maintained  and  defended  by  ■views  which,  unwittingly  per- 
haps, nevertheless  effectxaally,  interfere  with  those  spiritual  in- 
fluences that  alone  give  power  to  preaching  and  stability  to 
profession.  “ Hot  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit, 
saith  the*  Lord,”  is  an  expression  which  affirms  a principle  in 
the  administration  of  grace  that  is  not  to  be  confined  in  its  ap- 
plication to  the  terms  employed,  but  extends  to  every  affiliated 
thing  that  is  made  a ground  of  reliance  for  religious  results. 
The  primary,  all-absorbing  object  of  the  Christian  ministry  is, 
or  ought  to  be,  the  conversion  of  sinners.  The  Church  should 
recognize  and  conform  to  this  idea  in  her  plan  of  service  as  di- 
rectly as  the  preacher  himself.  How  the  end  proposed  is  to  be 
reached  purely  and  exclusively  by  the  Spirit’s  demonstration 
and  power.  Hence  every  thing,  however  harmless  or  even  de- 
sirable in  itself  abstractly  considered,  which  intervenes  in  the 
preconceptions  of  the  Church  as  necessary  or  even  auxiliary  to 
the  success  of  the  word,  forestalls  the  divine  plan,  grieves  the 
Spirit,  and  dooms  the  ministry  to  defeat ! 

The  notion  that  to  be  useful  a preacher  must  know  the  peo- 
ple and  be  known  by  them — that  there  must  be  reciprocal  fel- 
lowship, the  result  of  acquaintance  and  social  intercourse — that 
manner,  style,  and  gifts  must  harmonize  with  the  conventional 
tastes  and  aptitudes  of  the  audience,  is  all  a simple  fallacy, 
plausible  but  delusive.  Indeed,  the  better  suited  the  people 
are  in  these  respects — the  more  contented  with  the  fitness  and 
adaptation  of  the  instrument  and  the  human  proportion  of 
means  to  ends — the  less  likely  is  success.  There  may  be  mutual 
dehght  and  satisfaction  between  pastor  and  people,  but  there 
may  be  no  re-vival  of  the  work  of  God.  The  man  in  the  pulpit 


290 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


may  be  pioiis  and  consecrated,  bnt,  exalted  and  magnified  by  tbe 
estimate  of  tbe  people  as  tbongb  be  alone  were  “ somewhat, ” a 
jealous  God  cannot  give  fruit  to  bis  preaching  witboirt  seeming 
to  indorse  a vital  error  in  tbe  mind  of  tbe  Church.  Paul  may 
plant,  Apollos  water,  bnt  God  alone  can  give  tbe  increase. 
Tliere  is  a world  of  planting  and  watering  going  on,  but  tbe 
increase  is  not  proportionate.  “ Wliy  ? ” is  a great  question. 
These  modern  Church  arrangements  remind  one  of  the  servant 
Gehazi  with  the  prophet’s  staff  laid  upon  the  dead  child. 
There  is  no  life  till  the  Master  come,  and  when  he  comes  he 
will  not  operate  till  the  room  is  emptied.  The  prophet  must 
be  alone  with  God  and  the  dead.  My  observation  is,  that  the 
most  popular  preacher — the  man  most  desired  by  the  Churches 
— is  most  frequently  the  least  useful.  The  sermon  which  does 
not  do  the  work  of  Christ  upon  the  souls  of  men  may  be  intel- 
lectually great,  yet,  in  a true  gospel  sense,  it  is  labor  lost.  In 
the  history  of  the  Church  it  is  a suggestive  fact,  that  commonly 
as  a preacher  grows  famous  the  visible  results  of  his  labor 
diminish  in  number  and  value.  Talents,  reputation,  influence, 
are  aU  elements  of  usefulness,  and  they  would  be  effective  if 
they  were  not  complicated  with  fundamental  errors  which 
dishonor  the  Spirit,  and  thus  provoke  the  Almighty  to  leave 
the  Church  to  her  idols. 

The  Lord  will  not  give  his  glory  to  another ; and  when  the 
Church  undertakes  to  determine  the  time  and  the  methods  and 
the  instruments  by  and  through  which  he  must  work,  if  at  all, 
no  marvel  if  an  offended  God  resents  the  impertinence  and  de- 
clines copartnership  in  the  scheme.  Many  a good  man  is  cur- 
tailed in  his  usefulness  by  the  adulation  of  the  people,  by  their 
dependence  upon  him,  making  flesh  their  arm  instead  of  shut- 
ting themselves  up  to  faith  in  God.  The  opinions  and  the 
feelings,  the  affections  and  the  confidence,  which  stand  like 
a wall  between  the  preacher  and  the  Spirit,  forbidding  his 
co-operation  lest  he  patronize  an  unscriptural,  mischievous 
error,  are  all  fostered  by  long,  pleasant  association,  and  they 


Wesley  as  ak  iTiNEEAiirT. 


291 


mar  tlie  efficiency  of  the  pulpit  and  dilute  the  piety  of  the 
Church. 

Mr.  Wesley’s  plan  of  subpastors  under  the  name  of  “class- 
leaders,”  among  whom  the  Church  members  were  parceled  out 
for  a stated  weekly  meeting  and  for  general  oversight,  met  the 
necessities  of  the  case,  both  as  to  loving  guardianship  and  disci- 
pline, while  yet  the  preachers  had  time  for  study  and  travel, 
and  daily  ministrations  to  the  outside  world.  As  one  of  the 
grand  sequences  of  this  order  of  things,  well  nigh  every  public 
service  was  signalized  by  the  conversion  of  sinners.  The 
Church  looked  for  this  result,  prayed  for  it,  and  felt  that  the 
service  was  largely  a failure  without  it.  The  preachers  ex- 
pected it,  chose  their  subjects  accordingly,  and  pressed  the 
truth  to  this  issue.  Can  any  body  tell  why  it  is  that  in  these 
days  so  many  sermons  of  good  men  are  barren  of  good  results  ? 
In  view  of  the  genius  and  mission  and  promises  of  Christianity — 
the  Pentecostal  example,  apostolic  times,  and  the  exploits  of  our 
fathers — “ these  things  ought  not  so  to  be.”  Mor  would  they,  if 
all  parties  had  not  given  up  those  dominant,  vitalizing  convic- 
tions as  to  the  nature  and  privileges  of  the  Church  and  the  spe- 
cial functions  of  the  pulpit,  and  substituted  them  by  human 
ideas  and  methods  and  dependencies,  such  as  time,  mutual  ac- 
quaintance, protracted  services,  and  all  that  personal  influence 
which  is  supposed  to  cluster  about  the  long-known  and  much- 
loved pastor.  The  secret  of  power  is  in  divine  truth,  the 
prayer  of  faith,  and  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  These 
cannot  be  supplemented.  Hor  do  they  need  it.  If  we  attempt 
it  we  offend,  repel  the  blessing,  and  defeat  ourselves.  At  this 
very  point  the  faith  of  the  Church  is  at  fault.  It  does  not 
“look  to  God  alone,  with  self-distrusting  care,”  excluding  all 
secondary  helps,  and  grasping  the  divine  agency  as  efficient  and 
sufficient.  When  Moses, ‘instead  of  speaking  to  the  rock  as 
directed,  smote  it  with  his  wonder-working  rod,  although  the 
water  burst  forth,  God,  conceiving  himself  to  be  dishonored 
before  the  people,  punished  the  sin  by  the  death  and  burial 


292 


The  Wesley  Memorial  VoLmiE. 


of  the  offender  in  the  wilderness.  We  must  learn  to  honor 
God,  (the  truth  of  his  word,)  and  cease  to  lean  to  our  own 
understanding,  to  our  pet  theories,  and  chosen  instruments. 
The  itinerant  system,  as  originally  intended  and  as  carried  out 
for  a long  time,  by  its  very  nature  and  methods  precluded  all 
those  subtle,  insidious  ideas  and  influences  which  accompany 
every  departure  from  the  old  self-denying,  cross-bearing  way, 
and  always  come  in  to  undermine  the  more  spiritual  view,  and 
so  adulterate  the  faith  of  the  Church. 

Conceding  the  flexibility  of  the  system,  its  power  of  adapta- 
tion to  all  real  demands,  the  judgment  of  the  writer  has  de- 
murred to  every  material  infraction  of  the  plan  which  compels 
frequent  changes  of  ministers.  Indeed,  one  of  the  leading 
advantages  of  the  itinerancy  is  in  the  free  circulation  of  the 
gifts,  grace,  and  aptitudes  of  the  ministry.  A strong,  rich 
congregation  cannot  monopolize  their  favorite.  The  circuit 
may  compete  with  the  station.  The  city  and  the  country  peo- 
ple may  share  alike  in  the  revolutions  of  time.  The  chief, 
special  talents  of  the  brethren  in  various  ways  are  sown  broad- 
cast. ISTo  preacher,  though  personally  very  popular,  suits  every 
body.  He  may  be  God’s  messenger  to  some,  but  he  is  not  an 
apostle  to  all.  If  faithful,  Tiis  work  in  a given  place  is  soon 
accomplished,  and  he  should  go  to  another  where  like  subjects 
await  his  coming.  Confine  him  to  one  appointment,  and  you 
doom  him  to  glean  when  he  might  have  reaped,  and  rob 
him  of  the  sheaves  he  would  have  gathered  in  another  field.* 

If  Methodism  would  perpetuate  her  glory,  let  her  stick  to  her 
ensign.  A city  appointment,  a fine  parsonage,  a good  salary, 

* Other  advantages  the  itinerancy  has  over  the  settled  pastorate.  If  the  ap- 
pointment run  but  for  one  year,  (and  cannot  be  continued  longer  than  two  or  three 
years  at  most,)  the  Church  has  the  strongest  guarantee  that  she  will  receive  the 
very  best  energies  of  her  ministry,  and  the  very  cream  of  their  labors.  For,  to  the 
man  truly  called  of  God  to  save  souls,  what  can*  be  a greater  incentive  to  earnest  and 
effective  labor  than  the  thought  that  in  one  short  year  he  may  be,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  dead  to  the  people  of  his  charge  ? Hence  the  true  itinerant  must 
ever  feel,  more  than  the  settled  pastor,  that  whatever  he  does  for  his  people  must 
be  done  quickly  and  with  all  his  might. — Editor. 


Wesley  as  an  Itineeant. 


293 


polisiied  society,  and  an  admiring  congregation,  are  very  pleas- 
ant, perhaps  too  pleasant  for  the  highest  spiritual  development 
of  the  incumbent.  It  is  a hard  saying,  it  may  be,  but  eliminate 
the  element  of  self-denial  from  the  ministerial  life  and  labor — 
make  it  attractive  to  ambition,  tempting  to  avarice,  comfortable 
for  sloth — then  we  may  prepare  to  write  “Ichabod”  upon  our 
temples.  “ Leaving  father  and  mother,  and  wife  and  children, 
and  houses  and  lands,”  meant  something,  as  our  Saviour  said 
it ; and  the  effort  to  harmonize  the  not  doing  these  things  with 
the  full  discharge  of  ministerial  obligation  is  a hazardous  ex- 
periment. Contrasting  itinerancy  with  every  plan,  the  compara- 
tive results  ought  to  settle  the  question  as  to  which  is  most 
efficient  in  extending  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  The  facts  ex- 
clude debate.  The  evils  of  a long-continued  pastorate  are  so 
great,  and  so  inherent  and  inseparable,  as  very  often  to  necessi- 
tate the  very  changes  the  theory  and  system  proposed  to  avoid, 
and  with  this  immense  disadvantage,  that  there  is  no  place  for 
the  ejected  and  no  applicant  for  the  vacancy. 

Mr.  "VY esley’s  itinerant  life  is  without  a parallel  in  the  history 
of  the  Church.  The  work  he  performed  is  one  of  the  marvels 
of  human  endurance  and  of  providential  support.  He  illus- 
trated his  own  ideas,  and  exceeded  ah  his  followers  in  travels, 
sermons,  and  results.  He  could  not  be  idle.  He  demonstrated 
the  possibihties  of  his  system  by  a zeal  that  never  flagged,  and 
an  enthusiasm  that  warmed  his  age.  Hone  of  his  sons  have 
equaled  him  in  incessant  movement,  unwearied  toil,  and  extent 
of  operation.  He  saw  itinerancy  in  all  its  phases,  exhausted 
its  trials,  tested  all  its  capabilities,  and,  in  despite  of  its  weari- 
ness, exposures,  and  privations,  left  it  a legacy  to  his  people. 
It  is  consecrated  by  wisdom,  age,  and  success.  Let  us  main- 
tain it  in  aU.  its  integrity,  and  send  it  on  unimpaired  to  the  gen- 
erations to  come. 

19 


WESLEY  AS  A POPULAR  PEEACHER 


WESLEY’S  character,  so  interesting  in  private  life,  is  only 
fully  unfolded  in  the  vast  theater  of  his  public  activity. 
To  speak  the  truth,  his  power  resided  chiefly  in  his  preaching ; 
by  it  he  acted  upon  the  masses,  and  by  it  he  scattered  broadcast 
over  the  face  of  England  those  imperishable  seeds  which  con- 
tained the  germs  of  a great  future.  In  presence  of  the  almost 
fabulous  success  that  crowned  his  labors,  a question  occurs 
which  seems  at  flrst  sight  an  insoluble  enigma.  How  did  he, 
the  Oxford  graduate,  who  was  all  his  life  long  a devoted  stu- 
dent of  the  classical  authors,  and  who  read  on  horseback  the 
original  of  Homer  and  Yirgil — how  did  he  become  the  street- 
preacher,  the  popular  orator  of  the  masses  ? Love  for  souls, 
that  pure  and  noble  passion  enkindled  in  the  heart  by  the  love 
of  Grod,  alone  accounts  for  this  otherwise  incomprehensible 
phenomenon.  This  alone  can  explain,  also,  the  indefatigable 
perseverance  which  prolonged  such  an  apostleship  beyond  the 
bounds  of  half  a century. 

The  conflicts  of  fifty  years  revealed  great  qualities  in  Wesley, 
of  which  a military  commander  might  well  have  been  proud. 
Indeed,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  with  those  practical  qualities 
which  constitute  its  distinguishing  feature,  never  had  a better 
representative  than  he.  He  knew  how  to  yoke  into  the  service 
of  his  religious  principles  the  strong  will  and  the  unconquera- 
ble tenacity  which  have  brought  such  success  to  English  colo- 
nies. He  vanquished  the  ill-will  of  the  people  by  a persever- 
ance which  stood  the  test  of  all  kinds  of  opposition. 

What  gave  his  preaching  so  much  of  originality  was  his  per- 
fect frankness.  It  may  be  truly  said  of  Wesley  that  he  “spoke 
as  one  having  authority.”  He  never  flattered  his  audience; 


Wesley  as  a Popular  Preacher. 


295 


sometimes,  indeed,  as  he  tells  ns  himself,  he  “ spoke  strong, 
rough  words ; ” he  knew  nothing  of  the  art  of  disguising  his 
thoughts,  in  order  to  render  them  more  acceptable.  His  con- 
cise and  expressive  language  aimed  directly  at  its  object,  and 
said  exactly  what  he  meant.  Many  instances  have  been  given 
of  the  almost  magical  etfect  produced  on  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple by  his  incisive  utterances.  Still  more  effectually,  perhaps, 
did  he  wield  this  power  over  individuals.  When  he  fixed  his 
gaze  on  one  of  his  hearers  it  was  a very  rare  thing  if  the  heart 
did  not  quail  beneath  his  glance.  Sometimes  a man  would  en- 
ter his  congregation  with  his  hat  on  his  head,  fully  determined 
to  put  him  to  silence ; but  his  countenance  would  change  and 
his  cheek  pale  as  he  encountered  the  keen  eye  that  seemed  to 
pierce  to  the  depths  of  his  being.  It  must  not,  however,  he 
supposed  that  this  influence  of  Wesley  upon  the  masses  in  any 
degree  resembled  insolence  or  haughtiness.  His  authority  was 
of  a purely  moral  kind,  and  was  attained  through  the  slow  but 
unerring  operation  of  Christian  faith  and  zeal. 

It  must  be  added  that  in  many  respects  Wesley  was  admira- 
bly qualified  for  his  mission  as  a popular  preacher.  Besides 
that  eagle  glance  and  that  flowing  and  flexible  voice,  he  pos- 
sessed qualities  of  mind  most  highly  valued  by  the  people,  name- 
ly, clearness  and  precision.  Hone  knew  better  than  he  did 
how  to  familiarize  the  loftiest  truths  to  the  lowliest  minds. 
Hone  knew  better  how  to  employ  a sprightly  repartee  or  a 
happy  expression,  so  that  when  a long  harangue  would  have 
failed  in  its  object,  the  witty  proverb  penetrated  hke  the  point 
of  a sword. 

But  let  us  endeavor  to  form  a just  idea  of  Wesley’s  oratorical 
ability.  In  the  open  street,  and  in  the  pulpit  of  the  University 
of  Oxford,  the  style  of  this  great  preacher  was  simple  and  level 
to  the  understanding  of  every  individual.  His  reasoning  was 
logical  and  nervous ; and,  having  once  admitted  his  premises, 
you  were  carried  away  in  spite  of  yourself,  and  compelled  to 
accept  the  consequences  he  deduced  from  them.  His  argu- 


296 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Yolhme. 


mentation  flowed  in  a full  stream,  but  it  was  not  circuitous, 
and  did  not  overflow  its  proper  channels.  It  was  not  over- 
loaded with  the  vain  and  frivolous  ornaments  by  the  use  of 
which  some  seek  to  veil  the  poverty  of  their  thoughts,  nor  with 
those  tangled  digressions  which  hide  from  the  hearer  the  prin- 
cipal aim  of  the  discourse.  His  sole  business  was  to  produce 
conviction ; hence  he  put  himself  face  to  face  with  his  oppo- 
nent, and  never  neglected  to  answer  his  objections,  generally 
showing  how  contrary  they  were  to  common  sense.  His  aim 
was  direct ; he  despised  circumlocution,  and  never  mistook 
rhetorical  artifice  for  argument. 

Though  a profound  logician,  Wesley  was  far  from  being  a 
wearisome  dogmatist.  Let  him  be  compared  with  Tillotson  or 
Barrow,  and  it  will  be  easy  to  understand  the  vast  progress 
preaching  has  made  through  his  influence,  and  the  great  revo- 
lution he  has  effected  in  a department  that  had  remained  sta- 
tionary since  the  sixteenth  century.  He  did  not,  like  them, 
conduct  an  argument  for  argument’s  sake,  straining  himself  to 
prove,  by  a grand  array  of  syllogisms,  some  commonplace  of 
doctrine  or  morality  which  nobody  dreamed  of  disputing.  He 
daringly  confronted  those  subjects  which  were  the  most  strongly 
controverted,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  his  view,  the  most  funda- 
mental to  Christianity.  The  subjects  of  which  he  treated  were 
among  the  loftiest  and  gravest  that  can  be  brought  into  the 
Christian  pulpit ; yet  they  were  stated  with  so  much  frankness, 
resolved  into  their  simplest  forms  with  such  admirable  ease, 
expounded  and  discussed  with  such  marvelous  lucidity,  that 
the  hearer,  however  uncultivated,  was  captivated  and  subdued, 
and  with  difficulty  withstood  the  running  fire  of  such  power- 
ful and  burning  eloquence.  The  rhetorical  style  of  Tillotson 
and  his  imitators  resembles  those  heavy  batteries  which,  plant- 
ed on  the  heights  of  some  lofty  citadel,  await  the  approach  of  the 
enemy,  and  only  prove  their  efficacy  when  he  complacently  ad- 
vances within  the  range  of  their  fire.  W esley,  on  the  other  hand, 
resembles  the  light  artillery  composed  of  field-pieces,  which 


Wesley  as  a Popular  Preacher. 


297 


follow  the  enemy  to  his  farthest  intrenchments.  His  sermons 
were  generally  short  his  sprightly  and  compact  diction  always 
proceeded  straight  forward ; his  vivid  thoughts  came  clearly 
before  the  eye  of  the  mind,  and  frequently  took  the  form  of 
an  aphorism,  which  engraved  itself  upon  the  memory  of  the 
hearer. 

Wesley  has  the  great  merit  of  having  popularized,  and,  if.  I 
may  venture  to  say  so,  humanized,  that  austere  divinity  for- 
merly known  only  to  the  initiated,  and  denominated  logic.  He 
had  a real  respect  for  the  people,  which  is  utterly  wanting  in 
those  preachers  who  talk  to  them  as  if  they  were  children,  giv- 
ing them  reasons  that  they  do  not  want,  or  seeking  to  create  a 
merely  morbid  sensibility  on  which  no  durable  structure  can  be 
reared.  The  people  insensibly  rose  to  Wesley’s  level,  because 
he  knew  how  to  come  down  to  theirs. 

As  an  orator  Wesley  was  only  in  some  regards  inferior  to 
Whitefield.  For,  besides  this  logical  faculty  of  which  we  have 
just  -been  speaking,  he  possessed  an  incisiveness  of  speech 
which  was  lacking  in  Whitefield,  so  that  he  sometimes  carried 
conviction  to  hearts  that  had  remained  unmoved  by  the  appeals 
of  his  eloquent  friend.  John  Helson  tells  us  that  he  had  often 
listened  to  Whitefield’s  sermons,  and  had  been  charmed  by 
them  as  by  strains  of  incomparable  music ; he  admired  the 
preaching  and  loved  the  preacher,  but  no  more.  Wesley’s 
preaching  produced  a totally  different  effect.  Let  us  hear  the 
testimony  of  this  eye-witness.  “ As  soon  as  he  had  mounted 
the  platform,”  he  says,  “he  stroked  back  his  long  hair,  and 
turned  his  face  toward  where  I stood ; I thought  he  fixed  his 
eyes  upon  me.  This  single  look'  filled  me  with  inexpressible 
anguish ; before  he  opened  his  mouth  my  heart  beat  like  the 
pendulum  of  a clock,  and  when  he  spoke  I thought  his  whole 
discourse  was  aimed  at  me.” 

It  was,  in  fact,  a striking  characteristic  of  Wesley’s  preach- 

* Wesley’s  sermons  in  the  open  air  were  often  more  than  an  hour — not  unfre- 
quently  as  much  as  three  hours — in  length. 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


ing  that  liis  arguments  were  constantly  interrupted  by  aj)peals 
to  the  conscience  and  the  heart.  No  sooner  had  he  by  thor- 
ough discussion  discovered  and  dislodged  a stone  from  the 
quarry  of  truth,  than  as  a wise  master-builder  he  began  work- 
ing it  into  its  place  in  the  spiritual  edifice.  While  his  con- 
temporaries resembled  a body  of  antiquarians,  painfully  occu- 
pied in  collecting  a store  of  rusty  armor  wherewith  to  estabhsh 
a museum,  Wesley  no  sooner  lighted  upon  these  disused 
weapons  than  he  remodeled  them  for  present  use  and  turned 
them  against  the  foe.  He  never  forgot  that  he  had  to  do  with 
souls  whom  he  must  save  from  the  wrath  to  come.  When  he 
ai’gues — as  may  be  seen  in  his  printed  sermons — it  is  not  to 
exhibit  the  frivolous  spectacle  of  a brilliant  theological  or  phil- 
osophical tournament ; it  is  to  establish  upon  immovable  found- 
ations the  structure  he  wishes  to  build.  His  proofs  are  more 
commonly  biblical  than  philosophical,  and  are  addressed  to  the 
conscience  rather  than  to  the  intellect  alone. 

The  applications  of  Wesley’s  sermons  are  never  indirect,  but 
always  straightforward  and  aggressive.  By  a frequent  and 
felicitous  use  of  the  second  person  singular  he  throws  into  his 
appeals  an  extraordinary  power,  and  this  habit,  together  with 
that  of  the  employment  of  a great  number  of  scriptural  expres- 
sions, not  formally  cited,  but  inwrought  into  the  texture  of  his 
periods,  communicates  to  his  sermons  an  archaic  tinge  as  well 
as  a sahent  energy,  which  often  recall  the  preaching  of  the 
prophets. 

The  success  of  Wesley’s  preaching  gives  us  a lofty  idea  of 
the  character  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  to  whose  moral  renova- 
tion he  devoted  his  life.  The  nation  must  have  retained  great 
and  noble  instincts  in  the  depths  of  its  moral  being,  otherwise 
such  strong  meat  would  never  have  suited  it,  and  the  success 
of  such  preaching  would  never  have  amounted  to  more  than  a 
momentary  enthusiasm.  A people  capable  of  appreciating 
such  sermons  as  Wesley’s  must  have  been  a great  one.  Com- 
pare the  Anglo-Saxon  race  with  another  at  the  same  epoch, 


Wesley  as  a Populae  Peeachee. 


299 


crowding  around  those  worldly  abbots  who  were  sucb  favor- 
ites at  Yersailles,  and  one  may  well  ask,  Where  in  the  latter  is 
the  hfe,  the  vigor,  the  future,  in  a word,  which  distinguished 
the  former  ? The  one,  polite  and  amiable,  will  hear  no  gospel 
except  that  of  the  Yicar  of  Savoy,  and,  without  suspecting  it, 
is  on  the  verge  of  a bloody  revolution ; the  other,  rude  and 
coarse,  receives  the  teachings  of  Wesley  and  his  coadjutors, 
and  gradually  rises  in  the  scale  of  being  till  it  attains  real 
greatness,  and  is  ready  for  the  work  to  which  God,  in  the 
order  of  his  providence,  has  called  it. 


WESLEY  AS  AN  EDUCATOE. 


INDISCE.IMI1TATE  eulogy  is  but  little  honorable  to  the 
eulogized,  and  less  to  the  eulogist ; but  a correct  portrayal 
of  the  ambitions  and  accomplishments  of  a good  leader  among 
men  may  be  of  service  to  all  who  are  inclined  to  “ go  and  do 
likewise.”  A portraiture  of  John  Wesley  and  his  work  that 
should  omit  a proper  description  of  what  he  did  as  an  educa- 
tor would  be  so  incomplete  as  to  be  practically  false.  Educa- 
tion was  a large  part  of  his  life’s  great  work. 

Observe  his  qualifications  for  it.  He  was  a highly  accom- 
plished scholar.  From  early  childhood  to  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  he  was  a pupil  “ under  tutors  and  governors,”  passing 
through  all  the  various  grades  of  scholarship,  from  the  primary 
school  to  a fellowship,  and  almost  practically  to  the  headship, 
of  a college,  in  the  most  famous  University  in  the  world.  He 
lost  as  little  time,  perhaps,  as  any  man  known  in  history  ; none 
from  youthful  indiscretions,  almost  none  from  want  of  health, 
and  had  early  reduced  his  life  to  systematic  industry.  He  was 
placed  in  the  Charter  House  School,  London,  at  the  age  of 
ten  ; entered  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford,  when  seventeen  ; 
received  the  degree  of  M.A.  at  the  age  of  twenty-four;  and  for 
nine  years  was  a fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  where,  some  of  the 
time,  by  the  choice  of  the  professors,  he  was  vice-rector.  This 
alone  would  indicate  that  he  was  a proficient  in  the  university 
studies  then  pursued,  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  and 
literature,  in  the  dialectics  of  Aristotle,  in  the  history  and  phi- 
losophy then  embraced  in  the  ordinary  college  curriculum. 
After  his  election  to  the  fellowship  he  pursued  his  studies 
systematically  and  earnestly  for  several  years,  adding  to  his 
previous  acquirements  German,  French,  Italian,  Spanish, 


Wesley  as  ait  Educatoe. 


301 


Hebrew,  and  Arabic,  and  some  study  of  the  matbematics, 
embracing  Euclid  and  the  writings  of  Sir  Isaac  Hewton. 
He  could  converse  readily  in  Latin  and  German,  and  con- 
duct cburcb  service  in  Frencli  and  Italian.  He  was  an  orig- 
inal observer,  a close  student,  a general  reader,  and  a ready 
speaker. 

Sucb  a man  must  bave  bad  strong  convictions  about  education. 
It  would  be  natural,  indeed,  for  bim  to  entertain  a prejudice 
in  favor  of  schools.  His  “idols  of  tbe  tribe”  would  be  likely 
to  be  books  and  established  forms  of  pedagogic  culture.  What 
sympathy  'could  sucb  a man  bave  with  tbe  untutored  thought 
and  speech  of  rustics  ? He  never  talked  their  dialect ; from 
early  childhood  he  had  never  eaten  their  bread.  But  for- 
tunately, nay,  rather,  providentially,  his  earhest  years  were 
spent  under  a thatched  roof,  and  he  also  became  the  subject  of 
a radical  Christianization,  deeper  and  more  thorough  than  had 
been  common  in  his  generation,  which  made  him  feel  that  he 
was  brother  to  every  human  being,  and  that  the  great  object  of 
his  hfe  should  be  to  win  as  many  as  he  could  irrespective  of  all 
earthly  distinctions,  as  trophies  to  Christ. 

It  was  not  poverty,  nor  love  of  adventure,  that  drove  him 
from  the  most  beautiful  classic  retreats  in  the  world  to  a vil- 
lage of  log  huts  in  the  edge  of  the  American  wilderness.  He 
was  free  to  choose  between  several  comfortable  posts  in  his 
native  land ; high  honors  were  fairly  within  his  reach.  He 
had  had  successful  experience  as  a curate  of  two  or  three 
parishes ; the  rectorship  of  Epworth  was  supposed  to  be  within 
his  reach.*  But  God  had  a greater  mission  for  him,  and  in- 
spired him  with  a restlessness  never  to  be  satisfied  till  he 
should  find  his  place. 

We,  therefore,  soon  see  this  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  who 
has  never  known,  any  labor  but  that  of  a student,  now  a 


* The  only  parish  of  which  he  was  ever  the  rector  was  Christ  Church  parish, 
Savannah,  Georgia.  He  left  Savannah  to  claim  the  wide  world  as  his  parish. — 
Editor. 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


chaplain  among  the  heterogeneous  population  gathered  from 
several  nations  in  the  then  infant  colony  of  Georgia.  Here 
the  university  Fellow  immediately  opened  a school  and  em- 
ployed for  it  a regular  teacher.  He  himself  gave  religious 
instruction  to  all  the  pupils  weekly.  He  also  estabhshed  an- 
other school,  which  met  on  Sundays,  in  which  he  and  others 
gave  instruction  on  the  Bible  and  practical  religion.  This 
was  really  a Sunday-school,  established  forty-three  years  be- 
fore Hobert  Raikes,  who  was  then  a babe  in  his  mother’s 
arms,  opened  a similar  school  in  Gloucester,  England.  This 
school  was  held  in  the  church,  and  had  the  best  elements  of 
a modern  Sunday-school.  Its  instruction  was  religious,  not 
secular. 

The  story  of  Wesley’s  brief  life  in  Georgia  and  his  return 
to  England  is  well  known.  He  returned,  not  to  the  University, 
though  he  still  held  his  fellowship,  nor  to  assume  the  limited 
duties  of  a parish.  He  was  soon  the  subject  of  a religious  ex- 
perience that  more  fully  satisfied  him,  and  concentrated  his 
energies  as  never  before.  Then  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  after 
all  his  long  preliminary  preparation,  scholastic  and  religious, 
he  was  to  enter  upon  a work  the  visible  effects  of  which  were 
to  be  as  boundless  as  the  world  and  as  lasting  as  time.  His 
preparation  for  his  great  work  was  about  as  long  and  thorough 
as  was  that  of  Milton  for  his. 

I have  seen  an  original  portrait  of  John  Wesley,  taken  short- 
ly after  this  time  to  satisfy  the  solicitations  of  one  of  his  local 
preachers,  who  brought  it  to  America  and  preserved  it  in  his 
family,  and  it  is  now  in  the  museum  of  the  Syracuse  Univer- 
sity. With  well-rounded  features,  not  so  prominent  as  in  later 
years,  with  his  own  abundant  locks  slightly  tinged  with  gray, 
the  picture  is  much  like  the  ideal  which  painters  have  given 
to  the  beloved  disciple,  John. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Wesley  began  to  manifest  his  strong 
interest  in  education,  not,  as  some  would  say,  second  only  to 
religion,  but  actually  one  with  and  inseparable  from  it. 


Wesley  as  an  Educator. 


303 


His  long  experience  in  Lincoln  College,  wliere  Le  had  not 
been  idle,  but  in  addition  to  professional  lectures  and  presiding 
over  the  rhetorical  and  logical  discussions  of  the  students,  be 
bad  pursued  special  courses  of  study,  and  given  particular 
instruction  to  pupils,  and  bis  experience  and  observation  in 
America  and  Germany,  prepared  him  for  the  demand  that  was 
about  to  arise.  Had  be  undervalued  education,  or — while  be 
saw  and  felt  its  inadequacy  alone  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
individual  heart  or  of  the  Church — bad  be  not  by  example  and 
precept  earnestly  encouraged  it  among  his  people,  it  is  certain 
that  the  Hetbodist  Societies  would  not  long  have  held  together, 
and  the  great  revival  which  be  introduced  would  have  rapidly 
subsided,  and  probably  have  bad  no  historian. 

In  this  paper  there  is  room  only  for  a presentation  of  the 
general  features  of  bis  educational  work.  Hotbing  would  be 
added  to  the  correctness  and  vividness  of  the  picture  by  present- 
ing the  detail.  All  competent  to  appreciate  it  can  fill  out  the 
history  for  themselves. 

As  early  as  1740  be  obtained  possession  of  a school  at  Kings- 
wood,  which,  with  some  changes  of  forms  and  situation  and 
enlargement,  has  existed  from  that  day  to  this.  What  a cata- 
logue of  worthy  names  its  records  present!  After  1748  Wes- 
ley’s interest  in  the  school  at  Kingswood  greatly  increased,  for 
at  that  time  it  was  enlarged,  and  systematic  efforts  were  made 
for  the  instruction  of  the  children  of  the  itinerant  preachers. 
The  motto  of  America’s  oldest  college  is  “ Christo  et  JEccle- 
sicB.”  The  inscription  on  the  front  of  the  old  Kingswood 
school  was,  “7b  Gloriam  Dei  Optimi  Maximi,  in  Usum 
Ecelesioe  et  Reij>ubliGGe ; and  in  Hebrew  letters,  “Jebovab- 
Jireb.” 

Immediately  after  the  enlargement  of  this  school  Wesley 
entered  upon  bis  work  of  educational  authorship.  Eight  years 
before  he  had  published  a tract,  written,  indeed,  by  another 
man,  in  which  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek,  and  the  ordinary 
education  of  the  day,  are  spoken  of  with  not  a little  disappro- 


304 


TirE  Wesley  Memoktal  Volu.aie. 


bation  and  sarcasm ; but  when  be  came  to  lay  down  for  bis 
own  school  courses  of  study,  be  provided  for  tbe  study  of  En- 
glish, French,  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  geography,  history, 
rhetoric,  logic,  ethics,  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  physics, 
and  music.  He  employed  six  masters  or  professors,  and  insti- 
tuted an  original  method  which  probably  made  it  the  best 
school  of  the  grade  in  England.  It  failed  to  be  generally 
recognized  as  such  only  because  it  belonged  to  a sect  then 
every- where  spoken  against.  To  provide  for  the  wants  of  this 
school  John  Wesley  himself  prepared  several  text-books.  The 
first  was  “A  Short  Latin  Grammar,”  soon  followed  by  “A 
Short  English  Grammar,”  which,  thirteen  years  afterward, 
was  much  enlarged  and  improved. 

The  publication  of  this  short  Latin  grammar  really  marks  a 
new  epoch  in  the  study  of  Latin.  Previous  to  that  time  the 
Latin  grammars  employed  in  England  were  all  in  the  Latin  lan- 
guage, useless  without  a living  teacher,  and  really  made  the  study 
of  the  language  unnecessarily  difficult  and  unpleasant.  But 
this  example,  then  set  by  Wesley,  is  now  universally  followed. 

This  is  but  one  instance  of  many  in  which  the  striking  and, 
fearless  originality  of  Wesley  is  seen.  Hiebuhr  has  been  styled 
the  father  of  philosophical  history,  because  in  his  lectures,  de- 
livered at  Berlin,  in  1810,  he  subjected  the  strange  stories  of 
the  old  Latin  historians  to  criticism,  and  drew  the  line  between 
the  mythical  and  the  true ; but  Wesley,  in  his  journal,  as  early 
as  1771,  in  his  remarks  on  Hooke’s  ‘‘Homan  History,”  shows 
that  he  had  already  formed  the  same  opinion.  And  now,  when 
Wesley  came  to  write  “A  Short  Roman  History”  of  155  pages 
in  1773,  and  also  “ A Concise  History  of  England,”  from  the 
earliest  times  to  the  death  of  George  III.,  in  four  volumes  of, 
respectively,  335,  359,  348,  and  292  pages,  he  evinced  the  same 
critical  acumen  and  recognition  of  the  victories  and  failures  of 
peace  as  well  as  of  war  which  have  since  his  time  revolution- 
ized the  style  of  historical  writings.  I do  not  claim  that  Wes- 
ley’s grammars  of  the  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  French 


Wesley  as  aist  Educator. 


305 


languages,  and  his  histories,  deserve  to  be  ranked  with  the  best 
later  productions ; but  simply  that  they  were  pioneers,  not  only 
superior  to,  but  generically  different  from,  any  that  preceded 
them,  and  also  like  those  which  now  enjoy  the  approval  of 
the  best  scholars  and  practical  educators.  In  the  writing  of 
educational  text-books,  as  in  the  establishment  and  improve- 
ment of  Sunday-schools,  the  publication  of  tracts  for  the  people, 
the  commendation  of  the  disuse  of  intoxicants,  the  establish- 
ment of  an  itinerant  ministry  yet  held  under  strict  regimen, 
and  in  several  other  things,  he  anticipated  the  thoughts  of  later 
times,  and  originated  forces  and  machinery  which  now  enjoy 
general,  if  not  universal,  approval  and  use.  He  was  able,  usually, 
also  to  make  at  least  a few,  sometimes  many,  perceive  that  he 
was  ri2:ht. 

It  is  due  to  truth  to  observe,  that  notwithstanding  his  varied 
scholarship  he  did  sometimes  manifest  a sj^mpathy  with  those 
who  undervalued  the  ordinary  university  curriculum  of  study 
of  his  day,  and  expressed  himself  in  favor  of  condensing  the 
study  of  Latin  and  Greek  into  less  time,  and  of  devoting  more 
attention  to  science,  ethics,  logic,  and  practical  knowledge. 
But  the  books  which  he  wrote,  and  the  courses  of  study  which 
he  laid  down  for  the  college  at  Kingswood,  show  what  his  real 
convictions  were. 

He  was  too  great  a man  to  be  always  consistent  with  himself, 
except  on  the  broad  principle  of  professing  what  he  believed  : 
but  often  he  rectified  his  observations,  and  discarded  and 
changed  opinions,  according  to  evidence  and  investigation. 
His  interest  in  education  never  abated  nor  diminished,  hut 
rather  increased  in  his  later  years. 

In  addition  to  the  grammars  and  histories  above  mentioned 
he  puhhshed,  in  1153,  what  he  called  “ The  Complete  English 
Dictionary,  explaining  most  of  those  hard  words  which  are 
found  in  the  best  English  writers.”  This  was  two  years  before 
Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  published  his  great  English  Dictionary, 
which  shows  that  Wesley  was  attempting  to  fill  an  actual 


806 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


demand.  But  thongli  Johnson’s  Dictionary  just  then  appeared, 
"Wesley’s  Dictionary  reached  a second  edition  in  1764:.  Fora 
few  years  nearly  all  of  Wesley’s  publications  were  educa- 
tional. He  prepared  editions  of  selections  from  several  class- 
ical writers,  with  brief  original  notes.  The  first  was  entitled 
'■^Mathurini  Corderii  Colloquia  Selecta.  In  Usum  Juven- 
tutis  ChristianoB.  Edidit  Ecclesioe  Anglicanm  PresbyterP 
This  was  followed  by  his  ‘■Plistoria  et  PrcBcepta^'  ‘•Pnstruc- 
tiones  Pueriles'’’  and  editions  of  Selections  from  Sallust,  Ovid, 
Phsedrus,  Erasmus,  Cornelius  Hepos,  Juvenal,  Persius,  and 
Martial.  In  all  there  were  six  small  volumes  of  Latin  authors. 
He  also  wrote  an  original  work  on  elocution,  the  oldest  we  have 
seen  in  the  English  language,  entitled,  “ Directions  concerning 
Pronunciation  and  Gesture,”  which,  though  condensed,  con- 
tains about  all  that  one  really  needs  to  know  to  speak  efficiently 
before  the  public,  so  far  as  manner  is  concerned.  He  was 
especially  opposed  to  vociferation  and  ranting.  That  practiced 
parliamentarian  and  critic,  Horace  Walpole,  having  listened 
to  one  of  Wesley’s  sermons,  pronounced  him  “wondrous  clever, 
but  as  evidently  an  actor  as  was  Garrick.”  The  preacher 
was  too  rapid  and  too  enthusiastic  to  suit  Walpole’s  taste. 
Another  school  book  prepared  by  Mr.  Wesley  was  “A  Com- 
pendium of  Logic,”  originally  of  only  33  pages,  but  in  suc- 
cessive editions  greatly  enlarged.  This  book  also  is  worthy  of 
notice  as  a pioneer  in  the  English  language.  His  small  work 
on  Electricity,  based  on  the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Benjamin 
Franklin,  which  up  to  that  time  the  British  Royal  Society  had 
not  deigned  to  notice,  though  afterward  it  gave  to  them  and 
their  author  great  attention,  illustrates  two  facts  in  Wesley’s 
character — his  promptness  to  see  new  truths  in  science  as  well 
as  in  religion,  and  his  fearlessness  in  publishing  his  opinions 
whether  the  public  approved  or  not.  He  seems  to  have  spent 
many  hours  in  original  experiments  in  electricity.  His  work 
on  electricity  was  followed  by  one  that  cost  him  much  of  his 
leisure  time,  if  he  had  any  “ leisure,”  as  its  preparation  was  pro- 


Wesley  as  aist  Educator. 


307 


tracted  tlirougli  many  years.  This  was  entitled,  “ A Survey  of 
the  Wisdom  of  God  in  the  Creation;  or,  A Compendium  of 
ISTatural  Philosophy.”  In  five  volumes.  This  large  and  truly 
valuable  book  was  published  in  his  old  age,  and  for  many 
years  had  a wide  circulation.  Among  his  educational  books 
may  be  mentioned  an  “ Extract  of  Milton’s  Paradise  Lost,  with 
Hotes,”  which  also  reached  a second  edition. 

Let  any  one  collect  these  books,  original  and  edited,  to- 
gether, and  calculate  the  study  and  labor  requisite  to  prepare 
and  write  them ; and  then  let  him  consider  that  during  every 
week  while  he  was  preparing  them  Wesley  preached  on  an 
average  thrice  a day,  and  that  during  those  years  he  traveled 
thousands  of  miles,  mostly  on  horseback,  and  that  at  the  same 
time  he  was  preparing  other  books,  practical,  homiletical,  con- 
troversial, and  attending  to  the  immense  detail  that  must 
have  come  before  him,  and  one  may  form  some  conception  of 
the  prodigious  ability  and  industry  of  the  man. 

But  we  draw  this  imperfect  picture,  not  to  eulogize  the  ability 
and  industry  of  this  remarkable  man,  but  to  show  what  seems 
hitherto  to  have  been  overlooked,  that  he  deserves  a very  high 
rank  among  educators.  He  attempted  too  much  both  in  relig- 
ion and  education  to  produce  any  one  book  that,  on  its  own 
merits  alone,  will  be  recognized  as  a masterpiece  in  literature. 
Many  of  his  writings  were  designed  to  serve  a temporary  pur- 
pose, and  only  his  fame  as  one  of  the  world’s  greatest  men  will 
perpetuate  their  memory  ; but  they  were  original,  appropriate, 
strong,  efficient,  and  completely  served  their  purpose.  They 
opened  the  way  for  their  successors. 

Others,  solely  or  principally  devoted  to  education,  have 
entered  the  field  and  supplied  the  demand  with  works  more 
accurately  and  fully  prepared ; but  W esley  first  felt  the  de- 
mand in  many  instances,  and  first  supplied  it  for  the  thousands 
of  pupils  which  the  great  religious  revival  of  the  eighteenth 
century  had  created.  Hothing  so  stimulates  the  intellect  as 
true  Christianity.  A revival  always  fills  the  schools.  Science 


308 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


and  Christianity  are  sisters.  And  in  this  revival  religion  and 
education  had  the  same  teacher. 

It  is  noticeable,  too,  that  nearly  all  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  educa- 
tional books  passed  through  several  editions.  This  alone  would 
have  been  a great  honor. 

The  provision  wliich  he  made  for  the  education  of  the 
preachers,  even  after  they  had  entered  Tipon  their  office,  de- 
serves mention  also  as  a novelty,  and  as  the  foundation  of  a 
practice  still  largely  observed  both  in  Great  Britain  and  Amer- 
ica, and  wherever  Methodism  extends. 

While,  therefore,  it  must  always  be  understood  that  the  chief 
work  which  God  permitted  Wesley  to  aecomjdish  was  to  orig- 
inate and  largely  to  direct  the  great  revival  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity in  modern  times,  it  should  also  be  noted  that  he  shone 
more  as  a scholar  even  than  as  a divine,  and  that  he  was  no  less 
a pioneer  in  education  than  in  ecclesiastical  organization.  If  he 
deserves  a rank  second  to  none  among  the  leaders  in  the 
Church,  at  least  with  such  men  as  Wiclif  and  Luther  and 
Augustine,  so,  also,  for  fertility  of  invention  and  commanding 
influence  on  succeeding  generations,  he  deserves  to  rank 
among  educators  with  Milton  and  Locke  and  Pestalozzi  and 
Froebel,  and  others  the  most  useful  and  famous  of  his  own  and 
other  lands. 

We  must  not  fail  to  notice  that  the  high  estimation  of  men- 
tal discipline  and  instruction  entertained  by  him  has  exerted 
an  abiding  influence  on  all  the  religious  denominations  that 
have  sprung  from  his  labors.  Kingswood  school  has  expanded 
and  been  multiplied  into  colleges,  theological  schools,  and  aca- 
demic institutions  of  every  grade.  Every  Methodist  body  in 
Great  Britain  and  her  colonies,  in  the  other  nations  of  Europe, 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  and  in  all  the  mission  flelds, 
recognizes  its  duty  to  provide  for  and  encourage  schools.* 


* Edward  Everett,  in  Lis  day,  said  that  there  was  no  Church  in  the  United 
States  so  successfully  engaged  in  the  cause  of  education  as  the  Methodist  Church. 
— Editor. 


Wesley  as  an  Educatoe. 


309 


In  John  Wesley  there  was  a wonderful  combination  of  qual- 
ities well  balanced.  His  liberality  and  candor  were  prevented 
from  degenerating  into  latitudinarianism,  his  love  of  order  into 
ecclesiasticism,  and  his  zeal  into  fanaticism,  by  what  he  himself 
called  “ common  sense,”  and  also  by  a high  degree  of  harmoni- 
ous culture  controlled  by  an  abiding  consciousness  of  the  love 
of  God. 

Methodism  was  so  original  and  radical  in  its  convictions  and 
modes  of  operation,  so  inclined  to  cast  aside  what  seemed  to 
be  useless  or  impediments,  so  bent  on  immediate  effects,  that 
at  first  many  of  its  chief  men  were  disposed  to  undervalue  the 
discipline  of  the  schools.  It  was  providential  that  John  Wes- 
ley was  a man  of  thorough  culture,  and  that  he  had  the  power 
to  discriminate  between  the  substantial  and  the  accidental  in 
education  as  in  religion.  He  was,  therefore,  conservative  and 
refoi’matory  ; one  of  the  most  successful  promoters  and  im- 
provers of  education  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 

20 


WESLEY  AND  HIS  LITEKATUEE  * 


IN  a work  professing  to  bring  out  all  the  aspects  of  Wesley’s 
many-sided  life,  bis  use  of  the  press  and  his  voluminous 
contributions  to  the  literature  of  his  age  must  not  be  forgotten. 
In  a brief  paper  upon  this  subject  it  should  be  premised  that 
he  was  not  by  choice  an  author.  The  all-pervading  consecra- 
tion of  his  days  to  his  life-work  of  evangelism  prevented  his 
adoption  of  literature  as  a profession,  and  deprived  him  both 
of  the  leisure  and  of  the  will  to  graduate  among  the  prizemen 
of  letters.  All  he  wrote  was  subordinate  to  his  supreme  design, 
and  not  a little  of  it  was  wrung  from  him  by  the  necessities,  con- 
troversial or  otherwise,  which  arose  in  the  progress  of  his  work. 
Still,  impressed  as  he  was  that  God  had  sent  him  upon  a mis- 
sion of  testimony,  and  casting  about  for  all  possible  means  of 
usefulness,  he  could  not  overlook  the  press^that  mighty  agent 
which  molds,  for  weal  or  woe,  so  large  a portion  of  mankind. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  he  began  eaidy  to  write  and 
to  compile,  in  order  that  he  might  at  once  enlarge  the  constit- 
uency to  whom  he  could  speak  about  the  things  of  God,  and 
secure  that  permanent  influence  by  which  printing  perpetuates 
mind,  and  by  which  the  appeal  or  entreaty  goes  plaintively 
pleading  on  long  after  the  living  voice  is  hushed  in  the  silence 
of  the  grave. 

There  was  something  in  the  state  of  things  around  him 
which  operated  as  a constraint  in  this  regard.  England,  in  the 
reigns  of  the  first  two  Georges,  had  fallen  into  a sad  state  of 
religious  degeneracy.  If  it  be  true  that  the  literature  of  any 
age  is  a mirror  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  age  is  reflected,  the 

* The  writer  cheerfully  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  a series  of  articles  on 
Wesley’s  Use  of  the  Press,  from  the  pen  of  the  late  Kev.  S.  Komilly  Hall. 


Wesley  and  His  Literature. 


311 


image  presented  of  the  early  Georgian  era  is  not  “ beautiful  ex- 
ceedingly.” Pope’s  pantheism  divided  the  fashionable  world 
with  the  bolder  infidelity  of  Bolingbroke.  The  loose  wit  of 
Congreve  was  said  to  be  the  “ only  prop  of  the  declining  stage.” 
Smollett  and  Fielding  were  the  stars  in  the  firmanent  of  fiction ; 
and  of  hterary  divines,  the  most  conspicuous  were  Swift  and 
Sterne.  Young  wrote  his  “Yight  Thoughts”  about  the  same 
period,  but  his  life  was  not  equal  to  his  poetry.  He  who  sang 
with  rapture  of  the  glories  of  heaven  had  a passion  for  the 
amusements  of  earth,  and  he  exhibited  the  “ prose  of  piety,” 
which  he  reprobates,  by  his  undignified  applications  for  prefer- 
ment ; applications  so  persistent  as  to  ehcit  from  Archbishop 
Seeker  the  rebuke,  that  “his  foidune  and  reputation  raised 
him  above  the  need  of  advancement,  and  his  sentiments,  surely, 
above  any  great  desire  for  it.”  The  literature  of  the  Churches, 
properly  so  called,  was  in  some  aspects  equally  degenerate.  It 
was  a Hterature  of  masculine  thought,  of  consummate  ability,  of 
immense  erudition,  and  of  scholarly  and  critical  taste.  To  this 
the  names  of  Warburton,  Jortin,  Waterland,  and  especially 
Butler,  bear  sufficient  witness.  But  while  there  was  much 
light,  there  was  little  heat.  Those  were  great  hearts  which 
were  felt  to  throb  in  the  works  of  Howe,  of  Barrow,  and  of  the 
Puritans,  but  in  their  successors  the  heart  element  was  largely 
wanting.  Spiritual  religion — the  informing  soul  of  Church 
hterature — was  hardly  a matter  of  belief ; indeed,  in  some 
cases  it  was  a matter  of  derision.  The  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith,  that  articulum  stantis  vel  cadentis  ecclesicB,  was  cari- 
catured as  a ’doctrine  against  good  works  in  not  a few  of  the 
treatises  of  the  time.  Lower  motives  were  appealed  to  by 
popular  divines.  “ Obedience,  moderation  in  amusements, 
prayer,  resignation,  and  the  love  of  God,”  were  enforced  iu 
discourses  preached  in  St.  Paul’s  and  in  Oxford,  “ on  the 
ground  of  the  reasonableness  on  which  they  rest,  and  the 
advantages  which  they  secure.”  Shaftesbury’s  “Yirtue  its 
own  Reward,”  was  thus  echoed  from  metropohtan  pulpits — 


312 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


“Virtue  must  be  built  upon  interest,  tliat  is,  our  interest 
upon  the  whole.”  There  was,'  indeed,  a narrowing  of  theolog- 
ical thought  until  it  was  almost  circumscribed  by  questions  of 
evidence,  and,  as  has  been  well  said  by  Dr.  Stoughton,  “ Mira- 
cles were  appealed  to  as  the  seals  of  Christianity  in  the  first 
century,  but  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  souls  of  men 
in  the  eighteenth  was  pronounced  an  idle  dream.” 

It  may  well  be  conceived  that  upon  a fervent  soul  like 
Wesley’s,  just  awakened  to  the  importance  of  spiritual 
things,  and  longing  to  employ  every  available  resource  in  his 
Mastei^’s  service,  the  sense  of  the  influence  of  the  press,  and 
the  conviction  that  it  was  being  abused,  or  at  best  worked 
for  inferior  uses,  would  be  an  obligation  to  labor  for  its  rescue, 
and  for  its  supreme  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  The 
singleness  of  his  aim  in  authorship  is  a marked  characteristic. 
He  wrote  neither  for  fame  nor  for  emolument,  but  solely  to 
do  good.  The  rationale  of  his  life  may  be  given  in  his  own  re- 
markable words : “ To  candid,  reasonable  men,  I am  not  afraid 
to  lay  open  what  have  been  the  inmost  thoughts  of  my  heart. 
I have  thought,  I am  a creature  of  a day,  passing  through  life 
as  an  arrow  through  the  air.  I am  a spirit  come  from  God 
and  returning  to  God  ; just  hovering  over  the  great  gulf  till, 
a few  moments  hence,  no  more  seen,  I drop  into  an  un- 
changeable eternity.”  Thus  consecrated,  he  desired  to  attain 
and  utilize  all  knowledge,  and  he  adds,  “ what  I thus  learn, 
that  I teach.”  The  same  spirit  led  him  to  be  independent  of 
any  affectation,  whether  of  subject  or  style : of  set  purpose  he 
cultivated  plainness,  “ using  words  easy  to  be  understood.” 
“ If  I observe  any  stiff  expression  I throw  it  out,  neck  and 
shoulders.”  “ I could  even  now  [in  his  old  age]  write  as 

floridly  and  rhetorically  as  even  the  admired  Dr.  B , but  I 

dare  not ; because  I seek  the  honor  that  cometh  from  God 
only.  I dare  no  more  write  in  a fine  style  than  wear  a fine 
coat.  But  were  it  otherwise — had  I time  to  spare — I should  still 
write  just  as  I do.”  Whether  this  estimate  of  his  own  power 


Wesley  aild  His  Literature. 


313 


to  rival  Blair  or  Massillon  be  correct  or  not,  (and  diversity  of 
opinion  on  that  point  is  not  treason,)  the  complete  subordina- 
tion of  tbe  scholar  and  the  critic,  of  the  man  of  ciilture  and 
the  man  of  taste,  to  the  one  purpose  of  extensive  usefulness, 
cannot  fail  to  win  the  admiration  of  right-thinking  minds  ; 
displaying,  as  it  does,  a heroism  of  self-abnegation  which  could 
mark  only  one  of  the  highest  styles  of  men.  Dr.  Johnson  says, 
“ A voluntary  descent  from  the  dignity  of  science  is,  perhaps, 
the  hardest  lesson  that  humility  can  teach.”  This  voluntary 
descent  John  Wesley  made  that  he  might  benefit  and  bless  the 
world.  The  first  time  he  ventured  to  print  any  thing,  in  1733, 
he  published  a “ Collection  of  Forms  of  Prayer”  for  his  pupils 
at  the  University,  and  for  the  poor  who  were  visited  by  the 
early  Methodists  at  Oxford.  He  wrote  on,  amid  incessant  toil 
and  travels,  well-nigh  without  an  interval,  for  more  than  fifty 
years,  making  a recreation  and  a privilege  of  his  labors,  until, 
at  eventide,  almost  with  his  dying  breath,  he  lingered  in  the 
Beulah-land  to  express  a desire  “that  his  sermon  on  ‘ the  Love 
of  God  ’ should  be  scattered  abroad  and  given  to  every  body.” 

Few  but  those  who  have  studied  the  matter  have  any  idea 
either  of  the  number  or  of  the  variety  of  Wesley’s  writings. 
To  enumerate  his  works  would  be  a tax  even  upon  a book- 
worm’s memory.  Their  titles  would  swell  into  a good-sized 
catalogue,  and  the  variety  of  subjects  touched  upon  in  his 
original  or  selected  volumes  would  almost  suggest  an  encyclo- 
pedia. Reckoning  his  abridgments  and  compilations,  more  than 
two  hundred  volumes  proceeded  from  his  fertile  pen.  Gram- 
mars, exercises,  dictionaries,  comj)endiums,  sermons  and  notes, 
a voluminous  Christian  Library,  and  a miscellaneous  monthly 
magazine,  tracts,  addresses,  answers,  apologies,  works  polem- 
ical, classical,  poetic,  scientific,  political,  were  poured  forth  in 
astonishing  succession,  not  in  learned  leisure,  but  in  the  midst 
of  the  busiest  fife  of  the  age — for  the  industrious  writer  was 
an  intrepid  evangelist  and  a wise  administrator,  a sagacious 
counselor  and  a loving  friend;  gave  more  advice  than  John 


314 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Voluiue. 


Newton  ; wrote,  more  letters  than  Horace  Walpole;  and  man- 
aged, a wise  and  absolute  ruler,  the  whole  concern  of  a Society 
which  grew  in  his  life-time  to  upwards  of  seventy  thousand  souls. 

It  is  necessary,  if  we  would  rightly  estimate  Wesley’s  use  of 
the  press,  to  remind  ourselves  that  he  wrote  under  none  of 
those  advantages  on  which  authors  of  note  and  name  float 
themselves  nowadays  into  renown.  There  was  but  a scanty 
literary  appetite.  The  voracious  love  of  books,  which  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  present  age,  did  not  exist.  Here  and  there 
were  those  prescient  of  its  coming,  who  dreamed  of  a time 
when  a cry  should  arise  from  the  people,  waxing  louder  and 
louder  until  it  became  as  the  plaint  of  a nation’s  prayer,  “ Give 
us  knowledge,  or  we  die.”  But  these  were  the  seers  of  their 
generation,  and  they  were  few.  The  masses  had  not  awakened 
from  the  mental  slumber  of  ages.  The  taste  for  reading  had 
to  be  created  and  fed.  Even  if  men  had  wished  to  make  ac- 
quaintance with  master-minds,  their  thoughts  were  only  given 
forth  in  costly  volumes  beyond  the  means  of  the  poor. 
Though  there  had  been  some  improvement  since  those  days  of 
famine,  when  “ a load  of  hay  ” was  given  “ for  a chapter  in 
James,”  nothing,  or  but  little,  had  been  done  to  bring  whole- 
some literature  within  the  reach  of  the  hamlet  as  well  as  of  the 
hall.  So  far  as  we  can  ascertain,  the  Jlrst  man  to  write  for 
the  million,  and  to  publish  so  cheaply  as  to  make  his  works  ac- 
cessible, was  John  Wesley.  Those  who  rejoice  in  the  cheap 
press,  in  the  cheap  serial,  in  the  science-made-easy,  which, 
if  he  so  choose,  keep  the  working  man  of  the  present  day 
abreast  of  the  highest  thought  and  culture  of  the  age,  ought 
never  to  forget  the  deep  debt  of  obligation  which  is  owed  to 
him  who  flrst  ventured  into  what  was  then  a hazardous  and  un- 
profitable field.  The  man  who  climbs  by  a trodden  road  up 
the  steeps  of  Parnassus,  or  drinks  of  the  waters  of  Helicon,  will 
surely  think  gratefully  of  him  whose  toil  made  the  climbing 
easy,  and  cleared  the  pathway  to  the  spring.  The  harvest-man, 
who  reaps  amid  the  plenty  and  the  singing,  has  not  earned  half 


Wesley  aet>  His  Literatuee. 


315 


tlie  reward  due  to  Mm  who,  alone,  beneath  the  gray  wintry  sky, 
went  out  for  the  scattering  of  the  seed.  We  claim  for  John 
Wesley,  and  that  beyond  gainsaying,  the  gratitude  of  all  lovers 
of  human  progress,  if  only  for  his  free  and  generous  use  of  the 
press,  for  the  loving  purpose  which  prompted  him  to  cheapen 
his  wealth  of  brain  that  others  might  share  it,  and  for  the 
forecasting  sagacity  which  led  him  to  initiate  a system  of  pop- 
ular instruction  which,  with  all  their  advantages  and  with  all 
their  boast,  the  present  race  of  authors  have  scarcely  been  able 
to  improve. 

In  noticing  a little  more  in  detail  the  nature  of  John  Wes- 
ley’s works  we  feel  bewildered  with  their  variety.  He  deals 
with  almost  every  useful  subject,  and,  considering  his  incessant 
public  labors,  the  wonder  cannot  be  repressed  that  he  wrote  so 
much,  and  that  he  wrote,  for  the  most  part,  so  well. 

His  writing  of  tracts — short  essays,  narratives,  letters,  or 
treatises,  which  could  be  read  without  much  expenditure  of 
time — was  a favorite  occupation  with  him.  The  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  was  in  existence  before  he 
began,  and  one  of  the  objects  of  its  foundation  was  to  disperse, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  Bibles  and  tracts  on  religious  sub- 
jects. Fifty  years  later  another  society  was  started,  with  a 
similar  object  and  name,  but  on  a wider  basis,  and  with  a freer 
sphere  of  action.  It  was  not,  however,  until  the  close  of  the 
century,  that  tract  societies,  as  such,  came  into  being ; and 
though,  strangely  enough,  the  jubilee  memorial  of  the  Relig- 
ious Tract  Society  makes  no  mention  of  his  name,  John  Wesley 
was  a diligent  writer  and  a systematic  distributer  of  tracts  fifty 
years  before  that  society  was  born. 

In  1745,  the  year  of  the  Stuart  rebellion,  he  says : “We  had 
within  a short  time  given  away  some  thousands  of  little  tract? 
among  the  common  people,  and  it  pleased  God  thereby  to 
provoke  others  to  jealousy ; insomuch  that  the  Lord  Mayor  had 
ordered  a large  quantity  of  papers,  dissuading  from  cursing  and 
swearing,  to  be  printed  and  distributed  among  the  train-bands.” 


316 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Wesley’s  preachers  -were  furnished  with  these  short,  plain 
messengers  of  mercy,  as  part  of  the  equipment  with  which 
their  saddle-hags  were  stored.  Regarding  “ a great  hook,” 
as  he  quaintly  said,  as  “ a great  evil,”  he  used  these  “ small 
arms  ” with  great  effect  and  perseverance  throughout  his  unusu- 
ally lengthened  life.  Every  thing  he  wrote  was  practical  and 
timely.  Particular  classes  were  particularly  addressed  ; A Word 
to  a Drunkard,  to  a Sahhath-hreaker,  to  a Swearer,  to  a Street- 
walker, to  a Smuggler,  to  a Condemned  Malefactor ; A W ord 
to  a Freeholder,  just  before  a General  Election;  A Word  to  a 
Protestant  when  Romish  Error  was  especially  Rampant  and 
Dangerous  ; Thoughts  on  the  Earthquake  at  Lisbon,  “ directed, 
not  as  I designed  at  first,  to  the  small  vulgar,  hut  the  great,  to 
the  learned,  rich,  and  honorable  heathens,  commonly  called 
Christians.”  These  show  that,  while  his  quiver  was  full,  his 
arrows  were  not  pointless,  and  they  were  “ sharp  in  the  hearts 
of  the  King’s  enemies  ” all  over  the  land. 

The  circumstances  under  which  some  of  the  tracts  were  writ- 
ten invest  them  with  much  interest,  while  they  illustrate  the 
character  of  the  man  of  one  business,  and  show  that  one  of  his 
secrets  of  success  was  to  be  frugal  of  time  as  well  as  of  words. 
He  got  wet  through  on  a journey,  and  stayed  at  a halting-place  to 
dry  his  clothes.  “ I took  the  opportunity,”  he  says,  “ of  writing 
A Word  to  a Freeholder.”  At  an  inn  in  Helvoetsluys,  in  Hol- 
land, detained  by  contrary  winds,  he  took  the  opportunity  of 
writing  a sermon  for  the  magazine.  After  a rough  journey  of 
ninety  miles  in  one  day,  he  required  rest.  ‘‘  I rested,  and  tran- 
scribed the  letter  to  Mr.  Bailey.”  “ The  tide  was  in,”  in  Wales, 
so  that  he  could  not  pass  over  the  sands.  “ I sat  down  in  a lit- 
tle cottage  for  three  or  four  hours  and  translated  ‘ Aldrich’s 
Logic.’  ” These  are  but  samples  of  his  redemption  of  time  for 
high  practical  uses,  and  of  the  conscientious  generosity  with 
which  he  crowded  his  moments  for  God’s  glory  with  works  of 
usefulness  and  honor. 

Of  his  poetical  publications  it  is  not  needful  to  write  at 


Wesley  and  His  Liter atuee. 


317 


length.  They  have  spoken  their  own  eulogy,  and  are  still 
speaking  it,  in  so  many  thousand  hearts,  that  they  need  no 
elaborate  praise.  John  Wesley  is  not  credited  by  his  critics 
with  much  imagination,  but  he  had  that  even  balance  of  the 
faculties  from  which  imagination  cannot  be  absent,  though  it 
may  be  chastened  and  controlled  by  others.  He  was  wise 
enough  to  know  that  “a  verse  may  strike  him  who  a ser- 
mon flies and  that  as  a ballad  is  said  to  have  sung  a mon- 
arch out  of  three  kingdoms,  the  power  of  spiritual  song  has 
often  been  of  the  essence  of  that  “violence”  which  “the 
kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth.”  Hence  he  began  early  to 
print  collections  of  hymns,  (the  earliest  known  having  been 
compiled  at  Savannah,  and  published  at  Charleston,  during  his 
stormy  residence  in  Georgia,)  and  followed  these,  at  intervals, 
by  poetical  publications  for  the  space  of  fifty  years.  Among 
these  were  Moral  and  Sacred  Poems ; Hymns  for  Children  ; 
Hymns  for  the  Use  of  Families;  Epistles;  Elegies;  Funeral 
Hymns;  Extracts  from  Herbert,  and  Milton,  and  Young; 
Hymns  with  Tunes  Annexed  ; and  Doctrinal  Controversies 
Versified.  The  intensest  pathos  wailing  forth  in  the  “ Cry 
of  the  Reprobate,”  the  most  caustic  sarcasm  lurking  in  the 
Hymns  on  God’s  Everlasting  Love  ; patriotism  finding  vent  in 
“ Song  on  the  Occurrence  of  a Threatened  Invasion.”  Wars, 
tumults,  earthquakes,  persecutions,  birthdays,  festivals,  recre- 
ations, were  all  improved  into  verse.  This  summary  will  suf- 
fice to  show  the  fertile  variety  of  topics  to  which  the  sacred 
lyre  was  strung.  Many  of  the  verses  were  but  of  hmited 
and  temporary  interest,  but  the  supply  for  the  service  of 
song  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  could  not  fail  to  present  it- 
self to  the  foresight  of  the  great  evangelist  as  a pressing 
church  necessity  which  must  be  adequately  met.  Hymnology 
may  be  said  almost  to  have  had  its  rise,  as  a worthy  provis- 
ion for  worship,  with  Watts  and  Wesley.  Tate  and  Brady 
had  been  substituted  for  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  but  with  a 
vigorous  church-hfe  these  faint  and  fading  echoes  of  the 


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strains  of  the  Hebrew  Psalmist  were  felt  to  he  insufficient. 
Isaac  Watts  first  realized  the  need,  and  did  much  to  supply 
it.  Then  Charles  Wesley  was  raised  up,  endowed  with  the 
poetic  genius,  and  enlivened  with  a cheerful  godliness  which 
found  themes  for  its  loftiest  exercise.  The  hymns  of  both, 
and  all  others  that  were  deemed  evangelical  and  worthy,  were 
gathered  by  the  taste  and  skill  of  John  Wesley,  and  under 
his  prudent  censorship,  into  a series  of  hymn  books  such  as 
the  Church  of  Christ  had  never  seen  before.  The  most  cov- 
etous seeker  after  fame  needs  covet  no  higher  than  to  have 
sent  forth  lyrics  like  these,  treasured  in  the  hearts  of  mul- 
titudes as  their  happiest  utterances  of  religious  hope  and  joy, 
chasing  anxiety  from  the  brow  of  the  troubled,  giving  glow- 
ing songs  in  the  night  of  weeping,  and,  in  the  case  of  many, 
gasped  out  with  the  failing  breath  as  the  last  enemy  fled 
beaten  from  the  field. 

His  homiletic  writings,  consisting  of  some  hundred  and 
forty  sermons,  were  carefully  revised  and  prepared  for  the 
press  in  some  of  those  quiet  retreats  where,  as  it  would  seem, 
mainly  for  this  purpose,  he  snatched  a brief  holiday  from  per- 
petual toil  and  travel.  In  the  retirement  of  Kingswood,  or 
under  the  roof  of  the  Perronets,  or  at  Hewington,  or  Lewis- 
ham, he  transcribed  his  well-weighed  words.  He  regarded  him- 
self pre-eminently  as  a preacher  : this  was  the  work  for  which 
he  was  raised  up  of  God,  and  to  this  all  else  was  subordinated : 
but  he  wished  a longer  ministry  than  could  be  compassed  in 
sixty  years,  and  accordingly  the  truths  which,  when  uttered  on 
Kennington  Common  or  in  the  Moorfields  had  produced  such 
marvelous  effects,  were  revised  and  systematized,  that  they 
might  preach  in  print  to  generations  who  lived  too  late  to  be 
subdued  by  the  quiet  earnestness  of  the  speaker’s  voice.  Wes- 
ley’s sermons  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  earliest  pubhshed 
system  of  experimental  religion.  The  press  had  been  used 
largely  for  printing  sermons  before ; critical  light  had  been  let 
in  upon  obscure  passages  of  Scripture ; scholarly  essays  abound- 


Wesley  and  His  Liteeatuee. 


319 


ed ; hondletic  literature  was  ricli  in  funeral  sermons,  the  im- 
provement of  passing  incidents,  and  arguments  for  the  external 
defense  of  the  faith ; hut  no  such  plain,  clear,  pungent,  practi- 
cal exhibition  of  the  whole  method  of  God’s  dealing  with  a 
sinner  had  ever  enriched  the  literature  of  the  English  language. 
He  was  anointed  to  prophesy  to  a congregation  of  the  dead, 
and  he  spake  of  the  truths  by  which  the  dead  can  live,  and 
spake  with  a prophet’s  singleness,  self -unconsciousness,  and 
power. 

His  expository  widtings  comprised  “Hotes”  on  the  Old  Tes- 
tament and  on  the  Hew.  It  could  hardly  be  that  he  could 
overlook,  in  his  search  for  useful  methods  of  doing  good,  helps 
to  biblical  interpretation  and  criticism.  As  in  every  thing  he 
wrote,  the  nature  and  limits  of  his  work  were  defined  by  the 
needs  and  leisure  of  those  for  whom  he  especially  wrote. 
Hence  he  announces  his  design  to  be  “ barely  to  assist  those  who 
fear  God  in  hearing  and  reading  the  Bible  itself,  by  showing  the 
natural  sense  of  every  part  in  as  few  and  plain  words  as  I can.” 
Again,  “I  have  endeavored  to  make  the  ‘Hotes’  as  short  as 
possible,  that  the  comment  may  not  obscure  or  swallow  up  the 
text.”  Hot  only  did  he  study  the  means  of  the  poor  who 
could  not  purchase  elaborate  commentaries,  and  the  lack  of 
culture  of  those  who  were  not  able  to  understand  them ; he 
wrote  briefiy  and  suggestively,  with  an  educational  design. 
“ It  is  no  part  of  my  design  to  save  either  learned  or  unlearned 
men  from  'the  trouble  of  thinking.  If  so,  I might,  per- 
haps, write  folios,  too,  which  usually  overlay  rather  than  help 
the  thought.  On  the  contrary,  my  intention  is  to  make  them 
think,  and  assist  them  in  thinking.”  His  Hotes  on  the  Old 
Testament  are  mainly  an  abridgment  of  Poole’s  “Anno- 
tations,” and  Matthew  Henry’s  “ Commentary,”  and  are  so 
condensed  as  greatly  to  detract  from  their  value.  The  notes 
on  the  Hew  Testament  were  begun  in  the  maturity  of  his 
powers,  on  the  6th  January,  1754.  His  health  had  partially 
broken  down  under  his  exhausting  labors,  and  he  was  ordered 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


to  the  Hotwells,  Clifton.  There  he  began  his  work ; a work 
which  he  says  he  should  never  have  attempted  if  he  had  not 
been  “ so  ill  as  to  be  unable  to  travel  and  preach,  and  yet  so 
well  as  to  be  able  to  read  and  write.”  Incidental  references  in 
his  journal  show  how  painfully  he  toiled  to  elicit  and  express 
the  true  mind  of  the  Spirit  in  the  word.  Doddridge’s  “ Fam- 
ily Expositor  ” and  Heylin’s  “ Theological  Lectures  ” were 
carefully  read,  all  the  passages  were  compared  with  the  orig- 
inal text,  a task  for  which  his  own  accurate  knowledge  of  Greek 
eminently  qualified  him,  and  several  improvements  on  the 
received  version  were  suggested  which  have  found  favor  with 
competent  critics.  By  far  the  most  valuable  help,  however,  in 
his  work,  w'as  furnished  by  the  “ Gnomon  Hovi  Testamenti  ” of 
the  celebrated  John  Albert  Bengel.  Wesley  became  interpen- 
etrated with  the  spirit  of  Bengel’s  teaching,  and  it  colored  his 
exposition.  He  was,  indeed,  the  first  to  recognize  the  claims  of 
the  great  German  critic  to  the  notice  of  English  theologians, 
as  Bunsen  and  others  have  acknowledged.  Eive  editions  of 
the  “Hotes”  were  published  in  John  Wesley’s  life-time,  and 
they  largely  eontribiited  to  maintain  his  early  preachers  in  the 
soundness  of  the  faith.  Hartwell  Horne — no  mean  judge — 
gives  high  praise  to  them  as  being  always  judicious,  accurate, 
spiritual,  terse,  and  impressive.  By  their  incorporation  into  the 
trust  deeds  of  Methodist  chapels,  in  which  they  are  referred 
to,  (along  with  certain  sermons,)  as  the  authorized  articles  of 
standard  belief,  they  have  secured,  so  long  as  British  law  is 
respected,  the  doctrinal  integrity  of  the  English  Methodist 
Church. 

W esley  used*  the  press  for  educational  purposes  to  a great 
extent.  They  utterly  misconceive  his  character  who  suppose 
that  he  was  an  abetter  or  favorer  of  ignorance,  or  that  he  un- 
duly depreciated  the  intellectual,  and  unduly  cultivated  the 
emotional,  part  of  the  nature.  Few  men  in  any  age  have 
done  more  for  the  mental  emancipation  of  their  fellows.  He 
was  systematically  giving  both  secular  and  Sabbath-school 


Wesley  and  His  Literature. 


321 


instruction  to  children  in  Savannah  when  Robert  Raihes  was 
in  his  infancy.  He  had  systematized  education  there  before 
Bell  and  Lancaster  were  horn.  When  his  ministry  was  suc- 
cessful among  the  masses,  if  he  found  the  people  boors  he 
did  not  leave  them  without  the  means  of  improvement,  and 
was  prodigal  in  his  endeavors  for  their  benefit.  Wesley  had 
not  the  large  advantage  which  association  affords  to  philanthro- 
pists now.  He  was  almost  a single-handed  worker.  Publish- 
ers who  had  an  eye  to  quick  returns  would  hardly  look  at  a 
series  of  educational  works,  so  sparse  and  ill-prepared  was  the 
market  for  such  literary  wares.  But  Wesley  was  determined, 
to  send  the  school-master  abroad,  trusting  that  under  the  provi- 
dence of  God  he  would  gather  his  own  scholars.  He  would 
uplift  the  masses,  though  they  themselves  were  inert,  and  even 
impatient  of  the  experiment.  Hence  he  prepared  and  pub- 
lished grammars  in  five  languages,  English,  French,  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew.  He  printed,  also,  expurgated  editions  of 
the  classics,  which,  as  the  “ Excerpta  ex  Ovidio,”  might  be 
properly  placed  in  the  hands  of  ingenuous  youth.  A “ Com- 
pendium of  Logic,”  clear  and  admirable,  also  issued  from  his 
pen.  Under  the  signature  “A  Lover  of  Good  English  and 
Common  Sense,”  he  published  “ The  Complete  English  Dic- 
tionary,” which,  in  its  way,  is  curious  and  valuable.  An 
“ H.  B.”  is  on  the  title  page,  to  this  effect : “ The  author 
assures  you  he  thinks  this  is  the  best  English  Dictionary  in  the 
world.”  The  preface  is  a literary  curiosity,  and  is  worth  re- 
printing in  extenso  as  a specimen  of  racy  wit  and  modest 
assurance.  It  runs  thus  : 

To  THE  Reader. 

As  incredible  as  it  naay  appear,  I must  allow  that  this  Dictionary  is 
not  published  to  get  money,  but  to  assist  persons  of  common  sense 
and  no  learning  to  understand  the  best  English  authors;  and  that  with 
as  little  expense  of  either  time  or  money  as  the  nature  of  the  thing 
will  allow.  To  this  end  it  contains,  not  a heap  of  Greek  and  Latin 
words  just  tagged  with  English  terminations,  (for  no  good  English 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


writer,  none  but  vain  and  senseless  pedants,  give  these  any  place  in 
their  writings;)  not  a scroll  of  barbarous  law  expressions,  which  are 
neither  Greek,  Latin,  nor  good  English ; not  a crowd  of  technical 
terms,  the  meaning  whereof  is  to  be  sought  in  books  expressly  wrote 
on  the  subjects  to  which  they  belong;  not  such  English  words  as 
and,  of,  hut,  which  stand  so  gravely  in  Mr.  Bailey’s,  Pardon’s,  and 
Martin’s  Dictionaries;  but  most  of  those  hard  words  which  are  found 
in  the  best  English  writers.  I say  most,  for  I purposely  omit  not  only 
all  that  are  not  hard,  and  which  are  not  found  in  the  best  writers — 
not  only  all  law  words  and  most  technical  terms — but  likewise  all,  the 
meaning  of  which  may  be  easily  gathered  from  those  of  the  same 
derivation.  And  this  I have  done  in  order  to  make  this  Dictionai’y 
both  as  short  and  cheap  as  possible. 

I should  add  no  more,  but  that  I have  so  often  observed  the  only 
way,  according  to  the  modern  taste,  for  any  author  to  procure  com- 
mendation to  his  book  is  vehemently  to  commend  it  himself.  For 
want  of  this  deference  to  the  public  several  excellent  tracts,  lately 
printed,  but  left  to  commend  themselves  by  their  intrinsic  worth,  are 
utterly  unknown  or  forgotten ; whereas,  if  a writer  of  tolerable  sense 
will  but  bestow  a few  violent  encomiums  on  his  own  work,  especially 
if  they  are  skillfully  ranged  in  the  title-page,  it  will  pass  through  six 
editions  in  a trice;  the  world  being  too  complaisant  to  give  a gentle- 
man the  lie,  and  taking  it  for  granted  he  understands  his  own  per- 
formance best.  In  compliance,  therefore,  with  the  taste  of  the  age,  I 
add  that  this  little  Dictionary  is  not  only  the  shortest  and  cheapest, 
but  likewise,  by  many  degrees,  the  most  correct,  which  is  extant  at 
this  day.  Many  are  the  mistakes  in  all  the  other  English  Dictiona- 
ries which  I have  seen;  whereas  I can  truly  say,  I know  of  none  in 
this.  And  I conceive  the  reader  will  believe  me,  for  if  I had,  I 
should  not  have  left  it  there.  Use,  then,  this  help  till  you  find  a better. 

Besides  these  grammars  and  this  dictionary  Wesley  ventured 
into  the  domain  of  the  historian.  He  wrote  a short  Eoman 
history,  and  a concise  history  of  England  in  four  volumes. 
He  had  many  qualities  which  fitted  him  for  this  particular  work. 
A calm,  judicial  mind  ; a sensitive  taste,  which  could  separate, 
almost  without  an  effort,  the  precious  from  the  vile ; a loyal 
love  of  constitutional  government,  as  he  understood  it ; and, 
above  all,  a reverent  insight  wliich  saw  God  moving  in  history 


Wesley  and  His  Literatuee. 


323 


to  the  working  out  of  his  own  plans,  whether  by  vessels  of 
wrath  or  instruments  of  deliverance  or  mercy,  are  advantages 
not  often  found  in  combination  in  the  same  individual. 
Later  in  hfe  he  also  published  an  ecclesiastical  history  on 
the  basis  of  Mosheim,  correcting  what  he  deemed  erroneous, 
and  appending  a “ Short  History  of  the  People  called  Method- 
ists,” the  more  necessary,  as  in  Maclaine’s  translation  of  Mo- 
sheim, Wesley  and  Whitefield  figured  in  the  list  of  heretics. 
Hatural  philosophy  and  electricity  (the  latter  science  at  that 
time  just  passing  out  of  the  region  of  myth  into  the  region  of 
acknowledged  discovery,  and  Franklin,  its  prophet,  looked 
upon  by  the  scientific  world  rather  as  a Pariah  than  a Brah- 
min) also  engaged  his  attention,  and  he  tried  to  popularize 
them.  Fragments  on  ethical  and  literary  subjects,  on  memory, 
taste,  genius,  the  power  of  music ; remarks  on  recently  pub- 
lished works,  or  works  of  standard  interest,  all  tending  to 
familiarize  the  masses  with  elevating  and  improving  subjects, 
proceeded  at  intervals  from  his  diligent  hand.  Indeed,  it  may 
be  fearlessly  affirmed  that  in  the  forefront  of  those  who  de- 
serve to  be  remembered  as  the  educators  of  the  race,  his  name 
should  be  recorded — a brave  pioneer  who  ventured,  ax  in 
hand,  to  make  a clearing  in  the  forest,  with  no  friends  to  cheer 
him  on,  and  but  for  whose  early  and  patient  toil  the  highway 
to  knowledge,  upon  which  so  many  are  easily  and  gladly  walk- 
ing, would  have  heen  delayed  in  its  construction  for  years. 

Connected  with  this  use  of  the  press  for  educational  pur- 
poses ought  to  be  mentioned  the  powerful  aid  which  his  writ- 
ings afforded  to  the  creation  of  a healthy  public  opinion  on 
sanitary  and  social  matters,  and  in  reference  to  existing  evils 
whose  foulness  was  but  half  understood.  While  as  a practical 
philanthropist  he  had  no  superior,  dispensing  food  and  help 
and  medicine,  caring  for  the  outcasts  who  “ sacrifice  to  gods 
which  smite  them  while  “ Stranger’s  Friend  Societies,”  dis- 
pensaries, and  orphan  houses  grew  up  around  him — the  comely 
expressions  of  his  goodness- — he  was  directing,  from  his  quiet 


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stady,  tte  silent  revolutions  of  opinion.  His  great  warm  heart 
beat  tenderly  for  suffering  humanity,  and  against  every  evil 
which  degraded  the  body,  or  dwarfed  the  mind,  or  cursed  the 
soul,  he  wrote  with  warmth  and  freedom.  He  pitied  the  har- 
lot, and  pleaded  for  the  downtrodden  slave.  He  denounced, 
in  ready  and  eloquent  words,  domestic  slavery,  cruel  intemper- 
ance, and  other  social  ulcers  which  eat  out  the  vigor  of  national 
life.  His  political  economy,  if  not  philosophically  sound,  was 
practically  uplifting  and  charitable.  Ho  regard  for  class  inter- 
ests tvas  allowed  to  interfere  with  his  one  purpose  of  doing 
good  and  bettering  the  individual,  the  nation,  and  the  world. 
For  the  healing  of  the  sick  he  disregarded  the  prejudices  of 
the  faculty,  and  though  wits  make  merry  at  his  “Primitive 
Physic,”  no  medical  works  of  that  day  are  more  free  from 
folly  or  empiricism.  For  the  simplification  of  necessary  legal 
documents  he  wrote  so  as  to  incur  the  wrath  of  the  lawyers, 
whose  “ villainous  tautology  ” moved  his  righteous  anger ; and 
in  Church  matters  he  denounced  pluralities  and  absenteeism  as 
vigorously  as  the  most  trenchant  Church  reformer  in  the  land. 
He  cheered  philanthropists,  like  Howard  and  Wilberforce,  in 
their  arduous  work,  and  they  blessed  him  for  his  loving  words. 
There  is  scarcely  an  active  form  of  charity  now  blessing  man- 
kind which  he  did  not  initiate  or  dream  of ; scarcely  an  ac- 
knowledged good  which  he  did  not  strive  to  realize.  In  fact, 
he  was  far  beyond  his  age,  and  his  forecasting  goodness  pro- 
jected itself,  like  a luminous  shadow,  upon  the  coming  time. 

Of  Wesley’s  polemiGal  writings  it  were  not  seemly,  in  an 
article  like  this,  to  speak  at  length.  He  was  not  naturally  in- 
clined to  controversy,  and  personally  was  one  of  the  most  pa- 
tient and  forgiving  of  men.  He  framed  his  United  Societies 
on  the  principle  of  comprehension ; any  could  be  Methodists 
who  accepted  the  essentials  of  the  Christian  system,  and  lived 
godly  and  peaceable  lives;  and  though  he  warred  ceaselessly 
against  sin,  he  was  tolerant  of  intellectual  error,  except  so  far 
as  it  was  connected  with  or  tended  to  sin.  In  matters  of  mere 


w ESLEY  AND  HiS  LiTEEATURE. 


325 


opinion  he  displayed  the  broadest  liberality,  and  avoided  the 
too  common  mistake  of  making  a man  an  offender  for  a word. 
In  comparatively  early  life  he  records  that  he  spent  “ near  ten 
minutes  in  controversy,  which  is  more  than  I had  done  in 
public  for  months,  perhaps  years,  before.”  Later  he  says,  “ I 
preach  eight  hundred  sermons  a year,  and,  taking  one  year 
with  another  for  twenty  years  past,  I have  not  preached  eight 
sermons  upon  the  subject.”  The  reference  is  to  mere  opinions. 
He  was  not  likely,  therefore,  needlessly  to  embroil  himself, 
nor  to  enter  upon  controversy  without  constraint  of  over- 
mastering motive,  or  that  which  to  him  seemed  to  be  such.  His 
first  controversy  was  with  his  former  friends,  the  Moravians, 
among  whom  he  thought  he  discovered  a dangerous  mysticism 
in  sentiment,  and  some  unworthy  license  in  practice  ; but  the 
interest  of  this  was  hmited,  and  it  is  now  forgotten.  The  three 
great  controversial  subjects  which  engaged  him  were,  first,  to 
repel  the  slanders  and  correct  the  mistakes  which  were  current 
about  himseK  and  his  work.  To  this  end  he  wrote  and  pub- 
lished his  “ Appeals  to  Men  of  Reason  and  Religion.”  These 
earnest  and  dignified  defenses  deserve  to  be  mentioned  by  the 
side  of  the  Apologies  of  the  early  Church.  In  the  first  Appeal, 
after  noticing  and  dealing  with  objections,  he  appeals  to  men 
who  pride  theinselves  on  their  reason,  as  to  the  unreasonable- 
ness of  an  ungodly  life,  thus  wounding  them  with  arrows  taken 
out  of  their  own  quiver.  The  second  is  almost  wholly  on  the 
defensive  in  the  first  part ; the  second  part  is  a fearless  and 
scathing  exposure  of  commonly  practised  sin ; and  the  third 
restates  the  defense,  and  reiterates  the  rebuke  of  transgression. 

Wesley’s  second  controversy  gave  rise  to  his  largest  and  ablest 
contribution  to  controversial  literature — ^his  treatise  on  “ Origi- 
nal Sin,”  in  reply  to  Dr.  John  Taylor,  an  acute  and  eminent 
Hnitarian  minister  of  Horwich.  In  this  work  he  treats  his  op- 
ponent with  uniform  courtesy,  while  he  freely  handles  and  does 
his  best  to  demolish  his  scheme.  He  considers  the  subject  first 

in  relation  to  the  state  of  mankind,  past  and  present.  After  the 
21  • 


326 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


historical  review,  which  he  confirms  by  a black  list  of  corrob- 
orating facts,  he  proceeds  to  the  scriptural  definition  and  proof 
of  the  doctrine,  dealing  with  his  opponent’s  method  of  dealing 
with  Scripture.  He  then  answers  Dr.  Taylor’s  answers  to 
writers  who  had  contended  with  him  before,  and  gives  length- 
ened extracts  from  these  writers  where  he  judged  them  worthy 
of  quotation.  Dr.  Taylor  had  answered  others,  but  to  Wes- 
ley’s treatise  no  reply  was  forthcoming.  The  third  and  most 
voluminous  controversy  in  which  Wesley  engaged  was  the 
Calvinistie  one,  in  which  the  Hills  and  Toplady  on  the  one 
hand,  and  Wesley  and  Fletcher  on  the  other,  were  doughty 
combatants  for  a series  of  years.  The  good  men  who  tilted  at 
each  other’s  shields,  sometimes  with  rude  assaults,  have  long 
since  met  in  the  land  where  they  learn  war  no  more,  and  have 
doubtless  seen  eye  to  eye  in  the  purged  vision  of  the  Hew 
Jerusalem.  It  were  idle,  nay  cruel,  to  revive  these  controver- 
sies now.  For  the  purposes  of  this  paper  it  need  only  be  af- 
firmed that  Wesley  did  not  wrangle  about  trifles.  “Religious 
liberty,  human  depravity,  justification  by  faith,  sanctification 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  universal  redemption  ” — these  were  the 
truths  which  .he  explained  with  convincing  clearness,  and  de- 
fended with  indomitable  energy,  and  with  a temper  which,  if 
not  absolutely  unruffled,  rarely  forgot  the  counsel,  although 
terribly  provoked  to  do  so, — 

“Be  calm  in  arguing,  for  fierceness  makes 
Error  a fault,  and  truth  discourtesy.” 

A large  portion  of  Wesley’s  contributions  to  the  literature 
of  his  time  consisted  of  his  abridgments  of  the  works  of  other 
men.  These  number  one  hundred  and  seventeen,  inclusive  of 
the  Christian  Library,  ■ which  consists  of  fifty  volumes.  Per- 
haps a more  unselfish  boon  was  never  given  by  any  man  in 
any  land  or  age.  It  was  a largeness  of  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual wealth  flung  royally  out  for  the  masses,  without  thought  of 
personal  gain  or  grudge  of  personal  trouble.  Wesley’s  pur- 


"Wesley  akd  His  Literature. 


327 


pose  Tvas  to  bring  to  the  notice  and  within  the  reach  of  his 
Societies  and  others  the  best  works  of  the  best  minds  on  the 
best  subjects,  that  by  the  light  of  this  sanctified  intellect  “ sons 
might  be  as  plants  grown  up  in  their  youth,  and  daughters  as 
corner-stones  polished  after  the  similitude  of  a palace.”  In 
this  Christian  Library  the  great  Christian  minds  of  the  gen- 
erations are  brought  together.  Clemens,  Ignatius,  and  Poly- 
carp-^St.  Ambrose,  Arndt,  and  John  Fox — Hall,  Leighton, 
Patrick,  and  Tillotson — are  parts  of  the  renowned  company. 
South,  Cave,  Manton,  Cudworth,  and  Jeremy  Taylor,  are  in 
friendly  companionship  with  Charnock,  Howe,  Flavel,  Baxter, 
and  Owen.  Brainerd  and  Jane  way  lay  bare  their  spiritual  ex- 
periences. Chief  Justice  Hale  and  Young  are  pressed  into 
the  service,  and  authors  from  foreign  lands,  such  as  Pascal, 
De  Eenty,  and  Bengel  are  naturalized  for  the  same  liberal  and 
useful  end.  The  experiment,  as  has  been  well  said,  “ had  never 
been  attempted  before,  and  has  never  been  surpassed  since.” 

His  miscellaneous  works  were  numerous,  and  so  various  as 
to  defy  classification.  On  whatever  topic  it  seemed  to  him 
that  the  people  needed  guidance  he  was  ready  to  offer  it ; he 
provided  for  them  instruction  and  counsel  on  the  great  prob- 
lems of  hfe  and  its  more  serious  duties,  and  did  not  forget, 
either  in  his  poetical  selections  or  in  “ Henry,  Earl  of  More- 
land,” to  indulge  them  with  morsels  of  lighter  reading  for 
their  leisure  hours. 

All  mention  of  the  Journals  has  been  reserved  to  the  last. 
They  must  be  studied  by  any  who  would  see  the  man. 
They  are  his  unconscious  autobiography.  His  versatility,  his 
industry,  his  benevolence,  his  patience  under  insult,  his  indif- 
ference to  human  honor,  his  single-mindedness,  his  continual 
waiting  upon  providence,  (which  involved  him  in  inconsisten- 
cies which  he  was  not  careful  to  reconcile,  and  which  glorious- 
ly vindicate  the  disinterestedness  of  his  life,)  his  culture,  his 
courtesy,  his  combination  of  the  instincts  of  a gentleman  with 
the  blunt  honesty  of  a son  of  toil,  his  time  dignity,  his  woman- 


328 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


]y  tenderness  of  feeling,  his  racy  wit,  his  discriminating  criti- 
cism, his  power  of  speech,  his  power  of  silence,  all  the  elements 
which  go  to  make  up  the  symmetry  of  a well-compacted  charac- 
ter,— if  any  want  to  find  these  let  them  go,  not  to  the  pages 
of  his  biographers,  who  from  various  stand-points  and  with 
much  acuteness  have  told  the  story  of  his  life,  but  let  them 
gather  what  he  was  and  what  the  Avorld  owes  to  him  from  these 
records,  as  he  daily  transcribed  them,  in  which  he  has  shown 
himseK,  as  in  a glass,  with  the  self-unconsciousness  and  trans- 
parency which  only  the  truly  great  can  afford  to  feel.  We 
need  not  anticipate  the  world’s  verdict.  It  has  been  already 
pronounced : — 

“Self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self-control. 

These  three  alone  lead  life  to  sovereign  power.” 

The  slander  was  hushed  into  silence,  and  men  woke  up  to 
know  that  a prophet  had  been  among  them  ere  yet  he  had 
passed  from  their  midst.  A life  of  such  singular  blameless- 
ness and  of  such  singular  devotion  is  a rich  heritage  for  any 
people.  He  was  not  covetous  of  any  fame  but  God’s ; but 
fame  has  come  to  him,  notwithstanding,  and  sits  upon  his  mem- 
ory hke  a crown  : — 

“ The  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory. 

He  that,  ever  following  her  commands. 

On  with  toil  of  heart  and  knees  and  hands. 

Through  the  long  gorge  to  the  far  light  has  won 
His  path  upward  and  prevailed. 

Shall  find  the  toppling  crags  of  duty  scaled. 

And  close  upon  the  shining  table-lauds 
To  which  our  God  himself  is  moon  and  sun. 

Such  was  he:  his  work  is  done; 

But  while  the  races  of  mankind  endure 
Let  his  great  example  stand 
Colossal,  seen  of  every  land.” 


JOHN  WESLEY  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 


JOHX  "WESLEY’S  love  of  cHldren  was  proverbial,  Robert 
Southey  being  the  witness.  The  poet  says : “ When  I 
was  a child  I was  in  a house  in  Bristol  where  W esley  was ; run- 
ning down  stairs  before  him  with  a beautiful  little  sister  of  my 
own,  he  overtook  us  on  the  landing,  where  he  lifted  my  sister 
in  his  arms  and  kissed  her.  Placing  her  on  her  feet  again,  he 
then  put  his  hand  upon  my  head  and  blessed  me.”  Little 
did  the  stranger  know  that  that  boy  was  to  become  the 
poet  laureate  of  England,  and  one  of  his  biographers.  Well 
might  Southey  say  in  after  years,  his  eyes  glistening  with 
tears,  and  his  tones  softened  by  grateful  and  tender  recollec- 
tion, “ I feel  as  though  I had  the  blessing  of  that  good  man 
upon  me  still.”  It  is  a beautiful  picWre  ; many  knew  it  to  be 
true  ; children  were  always  welcome,  and  “ never  in  his  way.” 
His  knowledge  of  their  wants  and  ways  made  him  interested  in 
their  concerns,  and  that  interest  was  a key  to  the  affections  of 
the  little  ones. 

In  olden  time  rules  were  strict,  and  parental  maxims  some- 
what rigid;  but  the  training  of  John  Wesley  was  such  as  to 
bear  its  fruit  in  after  life,  and  make  him  avoid  the  austere 
toward  children  that  he  might  win  their  confidence  by  love. 
At  his  early  Epworth  home  his  mother  was  his  teacher,  and 
she  began  to  educate  very  early.  “ At  one  year  old  he  was 
made  to  fear  the  rod,  and  to  kiss  it  when  he  cried,”  and  that 
passion  might  be  controlled,  “ his  very  crying  was  only  allowed 
in  softened  tonesP 

As  he  grew  to  be  a boy  he  was  only  allowed  three  meals  a 
day,  and  eating  and  drinking  between  meals  was  strictly  for- 
bidden. He  was  one  of  the  younger  of  nineteen  children,  and, 


330 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


though  nine  had  died,  there  were  enough  left  to  make  the  rule 
of  early  retiring  press  hard  upon  him,  for  since  all  had  to  be 
in  bed  by  eight  o’clock,  his  turn  would  probably  come  very 
early. 

Two  other  rules  were  in  force,  one  good,  the  other  doubtful ; 
“Never  give  a child  what  it  cried  for;  and  never  allow  any 
one  to  sit  by  the  cot  after  the  child  was  put  to  bed.”  This 
child  had  nerves  which  were  finely  strung,  and  great  fears  held 
possession  of  his  little  heart ; he  cried  for  fear  ; no  help  came, 
and  he  paid  the  penalty  in  after  life  of  wonderful  illusions, 
credulities,  and  dreams. 

Religion,  however,  was  the  foundation  of  all  teaching  in  that 
household ; the  children  were  taught  to  pray  as  soon  as  they 
could  speak,  and  they  were  taught  what  prayer  was.  It  is  said 
that  rudeness  was  never  seen  among  them  ; and  on  no  account 
were  they  allowed  to  call  each  other  by  their  proper  names 
without  the  addition  of  brother  or  sister,  as  the  case  might  be. 
School  was  kept  for  six  hours  a day,  and  psalms  were  sung  at 
the  beginning  and  close,  after  which  one  of  the  elder  children 
took  one  of  the  younger  and  read  to  them  from  the  Bible  and 
heard  the  evening  prayer.  This  was  the  home  teaching  of  the 
sons  till  they  were  sent  to  school  in  London ; and  one  who  ob- 
served the  order  of  the  Epworth  family  said,  “Never  was  there 
a family  of  children  who  did  theif  mother  greater  credit.”  And 
what  a mother  was  she ! She  trained  her  son  for  the  Lord ; 
she  watched  his  youthful  follies ; she  prayed  continually  for  his 
safe-guiding  as  weU  as  for  his  safe-keeping.  She  followed  him 
with  her  letters,  with  her  entreaties,  and  her  counsels,  and  she 
rejoiced  in  her  life  in  London  shortly  before  she  died,  that  she 
might  “ establish,  strengthen,  and  settle  ” him  ; and  when  she 
died  John  was,  indeed,  the  chief  mourner  who  stood  by  the 
open  grave  in  Bunhill-fields  and  dehvered  that  wonderful 
sermon  to  the  assembled  multitude.  It  was  his  filial  act 
which  placed  a stone  at  the  head  of  her  grave,  to  record  some- 
thing of  her  worth : 


John  Wesley  and  Sunday-Schools.  331 

“In  sure  and  steadfast  hope  to  rise, 

And  claim  her  mansion  in  the  skies, 

A Christian  here  her  flesh  laid  down ; 

The  cross  exchanging  for  a crown.” 

The  peril  of  the  great  city  was  soon  found  by  John  Wesley, 
to  whom  his  father  wrote  in  1715,  when  he  was  at  the  Charter 
House  School,  “ I hope  now  I shall  have  no  occasion  to  remem- 
ber the  things  that  are  past ; and  since  you  have  for  sometime 
bit  upon  the  bridle,  I have  now  joy  in  thee,  my  son.”  It  is 
sad  to  be  informed  by  him,  that  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  he 
had  to  write ; “ Till  now  I have  had  no  religious  friend,  but 
I begin  to  alter  the  whole  form  of  my  conversation,  and  am 
set  in  earnest  upon  a new  life.  I set  apart  an  hour  or  two  for 
religious  retirement ; I watch  against  all  sin,  whether  in  word 
or  deed  ; I begin  to  aim  at  and  to  pray  for  inward  holiness.” 
Thus  it  was,  that  from  the  age  of  ten  to  the  age  of  twenty- 
two,  the  restraints  of  home  being  cut  away,  the  experience  of 
many  young  men  of  godly  families  was  partially  the  experience 
of  one  of  God’s  holiest  and  most  useful  servants,  at  least  so  far 
that  there  was  a marked  lessening  of  religious  influence  and 
power. 

All  this  discipline  prepared  the  way  for  the  fuU  sympathy 
of  his  mind  with  childhood  and  youth,  which  was  shown  by 
Mr.  Wesley  from  the  beginning  of  his  ministry,  leading  him 
to  enforce  earnestly  family  religion  and  school  instruction.  In 
1745  he  wrote  his  “ Instructions  for  Children,  addressed  to  all 
Parents  and  School-masters,”  in  which  he  treats  upon  the  true 
principles  of  Christian  education,  and  that  these  should  be  in- 
stilled into  their  minds  as  soon  as  they  can  distinguish  good 
from  evil.  He  then  furnishes  lessons  in  the  form  of  a cate- 
chism, and  we  there  see  the  old  family  rules  of  his  own  home 
peeping  out  when  he  exhorts  teachers,  that  “ they  who  teach 
children  to  love  praise,  train  them  for  the  devil ; and  they 
who  give  children  what  they  like  are  the  worst  enemies  they 
have.” 


332  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yolttme. 

His  knowledge  of  the  hearts  of  children  leads  him  in  his  well- 
known  sermons  on  “ Training  Children  ” and  “ Family  Relig- 
ion ” to  say,  “ the  wickedness  of  children  is  generally  owing  to 
the  fault  or  neglect  of  their  parents.”  And  further,  “ that  the 
souls  of  children  should  be  fed  as  often  as  their  bodies.”  His 
“ lessons  ” are  taken  from  Moses,  and  are  fifty-four  in  number. 
These  he  commends  to  his  preachers,  saying,  “ Beware  how 
you  tend  these  deep  things  of  God ; beware  of  that  common 
but  accursed  way  of  making  children  parrots  instead  of  Chris- 
tians. Regard  not  how  much,  but  how  you  teach.  Turn 
every  sentence  every  way,  and  question  them  continually  on 
every  point.” 

How  the  personal  influence  of  Wesley  and  Whitefleld  all 
over  the  country,  and  the  instructions  of  the  former  to  his 
preachers,  must  have  opened  the  way  for  the  great  Sunday- 
school  movement  of  later  years.  Of  those  organizations  he 
says,  at  the  age  of  eighty-one  years,  when  he  preached  at  Bing- 
ley,  in  Yorkshire,  on  July  18,  ITSl,  “Before  service  I stepped 
into  the  Sunday-school.  ...  I find  these  schools  springing 
up  wherever  I go.  Perhaps  God  may  have  a deeper  end 
therein  than  men  are  aware  of.  Who  knows  but  that  some  of 
these  schools  may  become  nurseries  for  Christians  ? ” This  is 
Mr.  Wesley’s  first  mention  of  these  schools  in  his  Journal; 
and  he  caught  the  idea  with  wonderful  precision.  Robert 
Raikes  had  started  his  school  in  Gloucester  in  1181,  and  in 
1784  Wesley  says  of  the  Leeds  school:  “The  plan  is  this; 
boys  and  girls  are  kept  separate.  There  are  four  inquisitors 
who  spend  the  afternoon  in  visiting  the  twenty-six  schools, 
to  seek  the  absentees  in  the  public  streets.  The  masters  are 
mostly  pious  men  who  are  paid  from  one  to  two  shillings  a 
Sunday  for  their  services.  The  expenses  of  the  first  year  were 
£234.”  Yisiting  Oldham,  he  says,  “ The  children  clung  around 
me ; the  streets  were  lined  with  little  children,  and  such  chil- 
dren as  I had  never  seen  till  now.  After  singing,  a whole 
troop  closed  me  in  and  would  not  be  content  till  I had  shook 


Joim  Wesley  and  SuisrDAT-ScHOOLS. 


333 


each  of  them  by  the  hand.”  At  Bolton,  where  he  preached  at 
Easter,  1785,  he  wrote : “ Some  five  hundred  Sunday-school 
children  present ; such  an  army  got  about  me  when  I came  out 
of  the  chapel  that  I could  not  disengage  myself  from  them.” 
Well  may  all  this  display  of  infant  zeal  have  called  forth  the 
prediction  and  the  prayer  of  the  aged  saint.  He  could  not 
fail  to  remember  his  own  early  efforts  in  his  school  for  colliers’ 
children,  at  Kingswood ; in  his  school  at  the  Foimdery,  in  Lon- 
don, from  1742,  under  the  direction  and  tuition  of  Silas  Told ; 
and  earlier  still  in  his  parish  at  Savannah,  in  1736,  where  he 
had  commenced  the  work  which  Eaikes  was  permitted  to 

V 

accomplish  in  England  more  than  forty  years  afterward. 

Bishop  Stevens,  in  his  “ History  of  Georgia  ” has  made  this 
record  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  earliest  efforts  in  school  work : 

“As  a part  of  Joha  Wesley’s  parochial  labors  he  established  a school 
of  thirty  or  forty  children,  which  he  placed  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Del- 
lamotte,  a man  of  good  education,  who  endeavored  to  blend  religious 
instruction  with  secular  learning;  and  on  Sunday  aftei'noon  Wesley 
met  them  in  the  church  before  evening  service,  heard  the  children  recite 
their  catechism,  questioned  them  as  to  what  they  had  heard  from  the 
pulpit,  instructed  them  still  further  in  the  Bible,  endeavoring  to  fix  the 
truth  in  their  understandings  as  well  as  in  their  memorie.s.  This  was  a 
regular  part  of  his  Sunday  dutie.s,  and  it  shows  that  John  Wesley,  in  the 
parish  of  Savannah,  had  established  a Sunday-school  fifty  years  before 
Eobert  Eaikes  originated  his  noble  scheme  of  Sunday  instruction  in 
Gloucester,  and  eighty  years  before  the  first  school  in  America,  on  Mr. 
Eaikes’  plan,  was  established  in  the  eity  of  New  York.” 

To  whomsoever  we  are  indebted  for  the  first  thought  of 
Sunday-schools,  to  God  only  would  we  give  all  the  praise,  for 
such  a work  could  only  be  an  inspiration  from  him.  The 
Sunday-school  is  now  a great  fact,  one  of  the  most  potent  for 
good  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Its  influence  controls  the  con- 
science and  guides  the  will  of  nations ; and  from  America 
and  England  the  system  of  Sunday-schools  is  being  extended 
all  over  Europe,  and  by  the  aid  of  missionaries  to  people  in 
every  country  on  the  globe. 


334 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


On  the  rolls  of  our  Sabbath-schools  are  the  names  of  millions 

I 

of  scholars ; and  the  godly  unpaid  teachers  are  counted  by 
hundreds  of  thousands.  The  results  cannot  be  registered ; no 
pen  of  the  statist  can  figure  them  ; the  record  is  on  high  ! A 
century  of  Sunday-school  work  is  just  closing,  and  we  are  about 
to  celebrate  the  completion  of  that  period  ; but  the  world  has 
not  yet  seen  the  power  of  the  Sunday-school.  Had  he  lived 
so  long,  no  one  would  have  more  rejoiced  at  the  glorious 
results  of  Sunday-school  labors  during  a century  than  would 
John  Wesley. 


WESLEY  JEGE  PAE  DE  PEESSENSE. 


Paris,  ce  19  mril^  1879. 

A M.  LE  PASTEUR  Matthieu  Lelievre,  ISTimes  : 

Mon  CHER  Monsieur:  Yous  m’apprenez  que  I’on  prepare 
aux  Etats-Unis,  a la  grande  memoire  de  Wesley,  un  monument 
plus  durable  que  ceux  de  pierre  on  de  marbre.  Ce  monument 
doit  etre  un  livre,  dans  lequel  tontes  les  diverses  fractions  du 
cbristianisme  evangeliqne  exprimeront  leur  respect  et  lenr 
sympatbie  pour  ce  puissant  serviteur  de  Dien.  C’est  a ce  titre 
que  voiis  m’avez  demande  de  joindre  mon  temoignage  an  leur. 
Je  le  fais  avee  empressement,  dans  la  mesure  on  je  le  puis, 
c’est  a dire  en  me  contentant  d’nn  simple  temoignage  d’admi- 
ration  et  de  gratitude  ; car,  je  ne  suis  pas  capable  d’essayer  une 
caractdristiqne  de  cet  illnstre  serviteur  de  Dien,  illnstre  malgre 
Ini-meme,  I’bnmilite  etant  I’un  de  ses  traits  distinctifs.  Les 
Eglises  metliodistes  d’Ameriqne  ont  eu  bien  raison  de  faire 
appel  a la  cbretiente  evangeliqne  tout  entiere,  car  un  homme 
comme  Wesley  Ini  appartient,  tout  en  ayant  marque  son  oeuvre 
d’une  empreinte  particuliere,  par  I’influence  generate  et  con- 
siderable qu’il  a exercee  sur  I’Eglise  contemporaine. 

Laissant  de  cote  ce  qui  se  rapporte  plus  specialment  aux 
Eglises  que  portent  son  nom,  et,  qui  ont  bien  raison  de  demeurer 
fideles  a leur  caractere  propre,  tant  que  n’a  pas  sonne  I’beure 
de  la  grande  fusion,  dans  la  synthese  elargie  d’un  cbristianisme 
complet — heure  qui  me  parait  devoir  coincider  avec  celle  des 
dernieres  consommations— je  releverai  quelques  uns  des  grands 
services  rendus  par  Wesley  a la  Reformation  tout  entiere. 
Tout  d’abord,  au  point  de  vue  doctrinal,  il  a reagi  contre  la 
scbolastiqiie  dogmatique,  dans  laquelle  s’etait  figee  la  seve  gene- 
reuse  du  seizieme  siecle,  et  il  a restaure  I’element  moral,  la  lib- 


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The  'W'esley  Memorial  Volume. 


erte  liumaine  sacrifice  au  dogme  de  la  predestination  absolue, 
sans  tomber  dans  I’erreur  pelagienne.  Je  ne  m’arrete  pas  aiix 
consequences,  qui  ont  ete  tirees  de  cette  revendication  an  sein 
des  Eglises  wesleyennes,  et,  sur  lesquelles  je  n’ai  pas  a me  pro- 
noncer  ici.  Je  retiens  senlement  cette  grande  affirmation  dn 
fibre  arbitre,  en  dehors  de  laquelle,  je  declare  ne  pas  comprendre 
une  lutte  serieuse  centre  le  pantbeisme  contemporain,  et  cette 
insistance  snr  la  saintete,  qui  etait  bien  necessaire  en  face  d’une 
orthodoxie  plus  disposee  a rassurer  I’ame  qu’a  la  stimuler  a la 
lutte. 

En  second  lieu,  Wesley,  sans  rompre  prematurement  avec 
I’Eglise  officielle,  a ete  I’un  des  plus  puissants  initiateurs  de  la 
vraie  notion  de  I’Eglise,  qui  la  fait  reposer,  non  sur  la  naissance, 
mais  sur  la  foi  personnelle,  et  I’amene,  sans  detroner  le  minis- 
tere,  a une  large  pratique  du  sacerdoce  universel,  du  sacerdoce 
laique.  Cette  premiere  reforme  ecclesiastique  portait  d^ns  son 
sein  I’independance  de  la  societe  spirituelle  vis-a-vis  de  I’etat : 
aussi,  a la  seconde  generation,  le  wesleyanisme  a-t-il  presque 
partout  rompu  le  lien  avec  le  pouvoir  civil. 

En  troisieme  lieu,  Wesley  a donne  le  plus  magnifique  elan 
au  mouvement  missionnaire,  sans  separer  la  mission  du  dedans 
de  celle  du  dehors,  car  c’est  une  vraie  mission  qu’il  a entre- 
prise  avec  Whitefield  dans  les  terres  dites  chretiennes.  Je  ne 
connais  rien  de  plus  admirable  que  cette  propaganda  ardente, 
infatigable  dans  les  deux  mondes,  suspendant  les  multitudes 
aux  levres  de  ces  vrais  apotres  qui,  pour  employer  I’expression 
d’un  de  leurs  plus  fideles  disciples,  le  Rev.  Arthur,  portaient 
oraiment  une  langue  de  feu,  et,  dans  le  siecle  de  Voltaire  et  de 
Bolingbroke,  ramenerent  de  vraies  Pentecotes.  Ils  ont  ete  les 
initiateurs  d’un  reveil  general  qui  s’est  produit  dans  tout  le 
protestantisme.  Les  os  secs  se  sont  ranimes  a leur  voix,  qui  a 
ete  en  ten  due  par  toute  la  terre.  La  mission  interieure  a enfante 
la  mission  exterieure,  qui  lui  a du  cette  incomparable  expan- 
sion, la  gloire  de  I’Eglise  evangelique  du  dix-neu-vieme  siecle. 
Grace  a eux  et  a leurs  emules,  I’ange  de  1’ Apocalypse  a vrai- 


Wesley  Jtjge  pa.r  De  Pressense. 


337 


ment  repris  son  vol  sous  tons  les  cieux  pour  porter  I’Evangile 
eteruel  aux  peuples  de  toutes  langues. 

Enfin,  car  je  me  borne  a indiquer  ces  idees  sans  les  develop- 
per,  Wesley  a fait  descendre  de  nouveau  I’Evangile  des  hauteurs 
plus  ou  moins  glaeees  d’une  sorte  d’aristocratie  religieuse.  II 
I’a  porte  aux  desherites,  aux  ignorants,  aux  esclaves.  On  a pu 
^re  de  nouveau  : “ L’Evangile  est  annonce  aux  pauvres.”  Les 
partisans  d’une  religion  comme  il  faut,  lui  en  out  fait  un  re- 
proche,  et  lui  out  dit  comme  Celse  au  christianisme  primitif : 
“Yousne  vous  occupez  que  de  cette  tourbe  de  carrefour,  de 
tous  ces  miserables  qui  sont  le  rebut  de  I’humanite.”  Wesley 
am’ait  pu  repondre,  comme  Origene  dans  sa  replique  immortelle 
au  philosophe  grec : “ C’est  vrai ; nous  nous  preoecupons  de 
ces  miserables  pour  les  relever,  parce  que  vous  n’y  avez  pas 
pense.  Nous  representons  rm  Maitre  qui  a dit : ‘ Je  ne  suis  pas 
venu  pour  ceux  qui  sont  en  sante,  mais  je  cherche  tout  ce  qui 
est  perdu ! ’ ” 

II  faudrait  maintenant,  mon  cher  Monsieur,  montrer  toutes 
ces  grandes  idees  vivantes  dans  la  personne  de  Wesley,  re  tracer 
cette  fignre  si  noble,  cette  vie  d’infatigable  devouement.  Ce 
n’est  pas  en  vous  ecrivant  que  je  le  ferai,  car  je  n’  ai  garde 
d’oublier  que  vous  etes  un  de  ceux  qui  nous  avez  le  mieux  fait 
connaitre  ce  grand  chretien,  grand  surtout  parce  qu’il  redit 
du  fond  du  coeur  avec  Jean  Baptiste : “II  faut  qu’il  grandisse 
et  que  je  diminue.” 

Sans  donte  vos  Eghses,  comme  toutes  les  fractions  de  la 
chretiente,  ont  eu  leurs  imperfections  et  leurs  etroitesses. 
J’avoue  franchement  que  ma  pensee  a besoin  de  plus  d’air  et 
d’espace  que  I’orthodoxie  du  reveil,  qu’il  soit  wesleyen,  lu- 
therien,  ou  reforme.  Chaque  epoque  recoit  des  lumieres  nou- 
velles  de  Celui  qui  s’appeUe  le  Soleil  de  justice  et  de  verite. 
Je  souhaite  seulement  que  ces  lumieres  soient  penetrees  d’une 
flamme  aussi  ardente  qui  celle  que  anima  les  Peres  de  nos  Eglises. 
Les  grands  serviteurs  de  Dieu,  qui  nous  ont  quittes,  sont  comme 
des  Elies  enleves  dans  un  char  de  feu.  II  faut  ramasser,  non 


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pas  leur  linceul,  qui  represente  la  part  des  infirmites  et  des 
erreurs  humaines,  dont  il  faut  bien  se  garder  de  faire  des  tradi- 
tions mortes — mais  leur  mantean ; je  veux  dire,  ce  qni  sym- 
bolise leur  activite  large  et  feeonde. 

C’est  le  seul  moyen  pour  les  Elisees  de  continuer  les  Elies. 
Croyez,  cber  Monsieur,  a ma  baute  estime  et  a mon  affectueux 
devouement, 

E.  DE  Peessense. 


WESLEY  JUDGED  BY  DE.  DE  PEESSENSE. 


Pakis,  April  19,  1879. 
To  THE  Ret.  Matthew  Lelievke,  Ntmes. 

My  Deak  Sik  : Ton  tell  me  that  a monument  more  lasting 
than  one  of  stone  or  marble  is  being  prepared  in  the  United 
States  to  the  grand  memory  of  Wesley.  This  monument  is  a 
book  in  which  the  various  evangelical  communions  will  express 
their  respect  and  sympathy  for  that  powerful  servant  of  God. 
Wherefore  you  ask  me  to  join  my  testimony  to  theirs  ; and  I 
eagerly  do  so  in  the  measure  of  my  abihty,  confining  myself  to 
a simple  testimony  of  admiration  and  gratitude.  For  I am  not 
able  to  attempt  a characteristic  of  this  illustrious  servant  of 
God,  illustrious  in  spite  of  himseK,  humility  being  one  of  the 
traits  which  distinguished  him.  The  American  Methodist 
Churches  have  done  well  to  appeal  to  Evangelical  Christendom 
generally,  for  a man  such  as  Wesley,  although  his  work  bore  a 
special  stamp,  belongs  to  it  by  the  wide  and  deep  influence 
which  he  exercised  over  the  contemporary  Church. 

Leaving  aside  what  more  particularly  regards  the  Churches 
which  bear  his  name,  and  which  are  right  in  remaining  faith- 
ful to  their  own  principles,  so  long  as  the  hour  has  not  struck  for 
the  grand  fusion  in  the  widened  synthesis  of  a perfected  Chris- 
tianity— which  hour  methinks  will  coincide  with  the  end  of  all 
things — I shall  point  out  a few  of  the  great  services  Wesley 
rendered  to  reformation  generally.  In  the  first  place,  as  regards 
doctrine,  he  reacted  against  scholastical  dogmatics,  in  which  the 
noble  sap  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  been  congealed,  and, 
without  falling  into  Pelagian  error,  he  restored  the  moral  ele- 
ment— human  hberty — which  had  been  sacrificed  to  the  dogma 
of  absolute  predestination.  I pass  over  the  conclusions  which 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


have  been  drawn  from  this  claim  by  the  Wesleyan  Churches, 
and  on  which  I have  not  here  to  pronounce.  I only  mark  that 
grand  affirmation  of  the  free-will — without  which  I declare  I 
do  not  comprehend  any  serious  wrestling  against  contemporary 
pantheism — and  that  insistence  on ‘holiness  which  was  a neces- 
sity in  presence  of  an  orthodoxy  more  fit  to  reassure  the  waver- 
ing soul  than  to  excite  it  for  the  struggle. 

In  the  second  place,  Wesley,  without  prematurely  breaking 
with  the  Established  Church,  was  one  of  the  most  powerful 
initiators  of  that  true  ecclesiastical  notion  which  establishes 
the  Church,  not  on  birthright  but  on  personal  faith,  and, 
without  dethroning  ministry,  teaches  her  to  practice  universal 
priesthood — lay  priesthood.  This  first  ecclesiastical  reform 
carried  in  itself  the  independence  of  the  spiritual  society 
toward  the  State ; consequently,  as  early  as  the  second  genera- 
tion, Wesleyanism  had  nearly  every-where  freed  itself  from  civil 
power. 

Thirdly,  Wesley  gave  the  most  magnificent  impulse  to  mis- 
sionary movement  at  home  and  abroad ; for  that  was  a true 
mission  which  he  undertook  with  Whitefield  [in  Georgia]  in  a 
so-called  Christian  land.  I know  nothing  more  worthy  of 
admiration  than  the  ardent  propaganda,  indefatigable  in  both 
worlds,  of  those  time  apostles  on  whose  hps  crowds  hung  spell- 
bound, and — to  speak  in  the  language  of  one  of  their  most 
faithful  disciples,  the  Rev.  William  Arthur — who  had  tongues 
of  fire,  and  in  the  age  of  Voltaire  and  Bolingbroke  produced 
true  pentecosts.  They  were  the  means  of  beginning  a general 
revival  of  Protestantism.  At  their  voice — which  is  gone  into 
all  the  earth — the  dry  bones  revived.  The  home  mission 
brought  forth  foreign  mission,  which  has  been  followed  by  that 
incomparable  expansion,  the  glory  of  the  evangelical  Church 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  Thanks  to  them  and  their  associ- 
ates, the  angel  of  the  apocalypse  has  indeed  resumed  his  flight 
in  the  midst  of  heaven  to  carry  the  everlasting  gospel  to  every 
tongue  and  people. 


Wesley  Judged  by  Dr.  De  Pressense.  341 


Finally — for  I am  merely  pointing  ont  these  ideas  without 
unfolding  them — Wesley  brought  down  the  gospel  anew  from 
the  rather  icy  summits  of  a religion  of  aristocracy.  He 
took  it  to  the  disinherited,  to  the  ignorant,  to  the  slaves.  It 
might  again  be  truly  said : “ The  gospel  is  preached  to  the 
poor.”  The  followers  of  a fashionable  religion  have  made 
this  a reproach  to  him,  saying,  like  Celsus  to  primitive  Chris- 
tianity: “You  only  attend  to  those  cross- way  mobs,  to  those 
miserable  creatures  who  are  the  refuse  of  humanity.”  Wesley 
might  have  answered,  like  Origen,  in  his  immortal  reply  to  the 
Creek  philosopher : “ True,  we  employ  ourselves  to  restore 
those  miserable  people,  because  you  have  not  thought  about 
them.  We  represent  a Master  who  said : ‘ I came  not  for 
those  who  are  whole,  but  I seek  all  who  are  lost.’  ” 

Now,  dear  sir,  all  these  grand  ideas  ought  to  be  shown  alive 
in  the  person  of  Wesley,  and  that  noble  figure,  that  life  of  un- 
wearied self-denial,  ought  to  be  delineated.  I cannot  do  this 
in  a letter  to  you,  for  how  can  I forget  that  you*  are  one  of 
those  who  have  best  acquainted  us  with  this  great  Christian — 
great,  just  because,  like  John  the  Baptist,  he  said  from  his  in- 
most heart : “ He  must  increase,  and  I must  decrease.”- 

Surely,  your  Churches,  hke  all  other  Christian  communions, 
have  had  their  imperfections  and  their  narrow-mindedness.  I 
frankly  confess  that  my  thought  wants  more  air  and  space 
than  the  orthodoxy  of  revival  can  give,  whether  Wesleyan,  Lu- 
theran, or  Heformed.  Every  epoch  receives  fresh  light  from 
him  who  is  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  and  truth.  I only  wish 
that  this  light  be  penetrated  by  so  ardent  a flame  as  that  which 
animated  the  fathers  of  onr  Churches.  The  great  servants 
of  Cod  who  have  left  us  are  like  so  many  Elijahs  taken  up  in 
a chariot  of  fire.  We  must  pick  up,  not  their  shroud,  that  is 
to  say,  their  infirmities  and  errors — which  we  must  be  careful 
not  to  make  dead  traditions  of — but  their  .mantle,  by  which  I 

* Pressense  has  reference  to  Lelievre’s  most  admirable  “ Life  of  Wesley.” — 
Editor. 

22 


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The  "Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


mean  every  tiling  tliat  represents  their  wide  and  fruitful  activ- 
ity. Only  thus  will  the  Ehshas  be  the  continuators  of  the  Eli- 
jahs. I am,  dear  sir, 

Your  affectionately  devoted 

E.  DE  Pkessense. 


EPWOETH. 


I. 

M0THEE,LA!N'D  across  the  sea, 
Home  of  bards  and  sages, 
Crowned  amid  the  ages, 
Shrines  annumbered  are  in  thee. 
Where  the  pilgrim  reverently 
Stands  like  one  upon  a shore. 
Looking  far  the  billows  o’er ; 
Waiting  till  the  echoes  float 
From  the  wastes  that  lie  remote  ; 
So  we  lean,  with  ear  attent, 

For  some  winged  message  sent. 

II. 

In  the  distance  here  we  stand  ; — 
’Tis  a deep  devotion. 

Mother  isle  of  ocean. 

Speaks  a blessing  on  thy  land. 

For  thy  heroes,  strong  of  hand. 
Brave  of  heart,  the  ages  through ; 
’Tis  a shining  retinue, 

Thou  hast  given  for  the  lead 
Of  a world  in  restless  speed ; 

Seas  are  wide,  but  chains  of  gold 
Bind  us  each,  the  Hew  and  Old. 


344 


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III. 

Where  the  Trent  with  easy  flow 
Seeks  the  Humber,  gliding, 
Winding  oft,  and  hiding. 

Through  the  “ levels  ” rich  and  low, 
There  a manor  long  ago 
Rose  beyond,  on  heights  of  green. 
Looking  down  the  river  sheen  ; 

That  is  Epworth,  parish  old, 

Of  a date  that  is  not  told ; — 

Hence  the  echo  o’er  the  sea, 

Worthy  theme  of  minstrelsy. 

lY. 

Parsonage  of  Epworth ! where 
Came  there  brighter  angel. 

With  a glad  evangel? 

Hever  on  the  burdened  air 
Was  a sweeter  breath  of  prayer. 

Than  the  words  by  priest  intoned. 
When  the  mother,  love-enthroned, 
Gave  the  new-born  one  caress. 

With  God’s  seal  of  blessedness ; — 
Write  that  mother’s  queenly  soul, 
England,  on  thy  royal  scroll ! 

Y. 

Thatched  the  cottage  where  he  dwelt, 
Shepherd  and  protector, 

Epworth’s  saintly  rector; 

Dim  the  chancel  where  he  knelt, 
’Heath  the  mossy  tower  that  felt 


Epwoeth. 


345 


Shock  of  storm,  and  sunlight  kiss, 
Pointing  from  the  world  that  is 
To  the  higher  towers  of  gold, 

In  the  glory  manifold  ; 

Bless  St.  Andrew’s  with  its  chime, 
Eehc  of  the  olden  time  ! 


VL 

From  the  parish  of  the  priest, 
Hnmble  in  its  story. 

Spread  a wave  of  glory ; 

Like  the  day-star  in  the  East 
To  the  daylight  broad  increased ; 
TiU  a morning  song  is  heard 
Like  the  carol  of  a bird  ; 

Song  of  prisoned  souls  unbound 
Rising  all  the  wide  world  round  ; 
Palaces  have  heard  the  strain. 

And  the  lowly  keep  refrain. 

YII. 

Epworth  hath  its  legends  old  ; 

Tales  of  ancient  Briton,— 
Chivalry  unwritten, — 

Deed  of  Dane  and  Saxon,  told  ; 

But  no  dauntless  chief  or  bold 
Gives  the  manor  such  renown, 

Gives  its  beauty  such  a crown. 

As  the  knight  with  shield  and  lance, 
Leading  on  the  world’s  advance 
From  the  river  isle  Axholme, 

Over  land  and  ocean  foam. 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


VIII. 

Epworth  born,  and  Oxford  bred, 
Strident,  fellow,  master, 

Thence  a world-wide  pastor  ; 
Where  the  rubric  had  not  led. 
There  his  parish  field  was  spread  ; 
Mid  the  Newgate  felons  bold. 

On  the  Moorfields,  temple  old. 
Where  the  Kingswood  colliers  met, 
While  he  spread  the  gospel  net ; 
Wider  than  a bishop’s  see. 

His  a priesthood  by  decree. 

IX. 

Westward  rolled  the  glory -wave 
With  the  wave  of  freedom  ; 

As  from  ancient  Edom 
Came  the  mighty  One  to  save. 

So  the  stalwart  and  the  brave 
Entered  through  the  forest  doors. 
Trod  the  great  cathedral  floors. 
With  their  arches  old  and  dim. 
Where,  as  from  the  cherubim. 

Fell  the  beauty  and  the  gold 
With  a rapture  never  told. 

X. 

Now  the  marble  tells  his  fame 
Where  the  kings  are  sleeping. 
Guards  the  meanwhile  keeping 
Watch  o’er  his  illustrious  name; 
While  his  words,  an  angel  flame. 


Epworth. 


On  the  breath  of  morning  fly 
With  a trail  of  victory, 

From  the  rock  of  Plymouth  old, 
To  the  western  gate  of  gold  ; 

Yale  to  vale,  and  State  to  State, 
Polls  the  song  “ free  grace,”  elate. 

XI. 

Lo'  we  add  another  shrine. 

With  a new  hosanna. 

In  the  far  Savannah, 

Where  he  came  with  zeal  divine, 
’Mid  old  trails  of  oak  and  pine  ; 
Where  the  red  man  darkly  trod. 
Where  he  blindly  worshiped  God  ! 
Here  we  drop  our  gifts  of  gold  ; — 
’Tis  a tale  forever  told. 

Of  the  old  colonial  time. 

As  he  stood  in  early  prime. 


XII. 

Where  the  brave  Pulaski  fell. 

With  a shaft  upKfted, 

For  the  hero  gifted. 

Let  the  shade  of  W esley  dwell ; 

Let  this  fond  memorial  tell. 

Of  the  royal  brotherhood, 
Ransomed  all  by  Jesus’  blood  ; 
From  all  lands  of  earth  are  we 
Hither  brought  from  every  sea ; 
One  dear  land  is  ours — the  best ; 
One  dear  cross— our  pledge  of  rest. 


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The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


XIII. 

On  to  old  and  distant  climes, 

O’er  the  wild  Pacific, 

Speeds  the  light  omnific  ; 

Hark,  the  hiirried  crash  betimes 
Of  the  old  embattled  crimes, ' 

In  the  Tycoon’s  crowded  isles, 

’Mid  the  Rajah’s  palace  piles ; 

From  zenana  and  bazar  , 

Hear  the  “ Amen  ” rising  far ; 

See  the  guns  dismantled  stand. 

Spiked  by  Christ’s  own  princely  hand. 

XIY. 

Through  the  Flowery  Kingdom  wide, 
Up  its  river  passes 
Thronged  with  teeming  masses. 

O’er  the  mountains  which  divide 
Dynasties  of  wealth  and  pride  ; 

Lands  of  Caliph,  Czar,  and  Khan ; 

In  the  shade  of  V atican ; 

’Tis  the  same  old  conquering  charm, 
’Tis  the  heart  made  strangely  warm  ; 
Swifter  than  the  Moslem’s  sword 
Flies  the  everlasting  word. 

XV. 

Onward  is  the  sacred  march 
Through  revolted  regions, 

Filled  with  hostile  legions  ; 

Wild  sirocco  storms  but  parch 
All  the  way  to  victory’s  arch  ; 


Epworth. 


349 


“ God  is  with  us,”  best  of  all ; 

He  will  smite  the  bastion  wall ; 

We  shall  write  upon  the  bells 
Of  the  horses,  as  he  tells, 

“ Holiness  ” for  his  renown. 

His  the  glory  and  the  crown. 

XYI. 

’Tig  a birth-song  we  have  sung ; 
Whispered  as  we  listened. 

When  a babe  was  christened; 
When  the  parish  bells  were  rung. 
And  two  souls  together  clung. 

Child  and  mother.  Onward  time ! 
’Tis  a battlefield  sublime  ; 

Turn  the  kingdoms  ; islands  wait ; 
Chimes  the  jubilee  elate  ! — 

Parish  of  the  world ! behold ! 

Christ  is  crowned  with  stars  of  gold. 


WESLEY  AND  WHITEEIELD. 


The  title  of  this  paper  might,  under  other  circumstances, 
lead  readers  to  expect  a great  deal  more  than  we  propose 
to  attempt.  A full  discussion  of  all  that  is  involved  in  the 
names  Wesley  and  Whitefield  would  form  a history  of  the 
great  religious  movement  of  the  last  century,  of  which,  under 
God,  they  were  the  chief  promoters.  It  will  readily  be  seen, 
however,  that  a chapter  in  this  Memorial  Volume  on  the  sub- 
ject of  these  two  mighty  men  must  simply  exhibit  them  in 
their  relation  to  each  other. 

In  the  history  of  the  English  nation  and  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion the  two  names  are  inseparably  linked  together.  Some 
great  men  seem  to  have  had  no  associates,  of  equal  name  and 
fame,  engaged  with  them  in  their  work.  We  sometimes  com- 
pare the  names  of  Paul  and  Silas,  or  of  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
yet  this  is  as  we  mention  sun  and  satellite  together,  rather 
than  as  we  speak  of  two  twin  stars.  Wiclif  did  his  work 
alone.  We  couple  no  other  name  with  that  of  John  Calvin,  or 
of  Jonathan  Edwards.  Butler  thought  out  by  himself  the 
glorious  argument  of  his  imperishable  “Analogy.”  John  Mil- 
ton’s soul  was 

“Like  a star,  and  dwelt  apart.” 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  names  which,  despite  of  dissim- 
ilarities, we  associate  with  each  other.  Luther  and  Melanchthon 
are  a familiar  instance.  These  two  men  were  in  all  their  men- 
tal and  moral  idiosyncrasies  “ wide  as  the  poles  asunder,”  but 
they  were  co-equals,  associates,  fellow-helpers,  in  some  respects 
the  complement  or  correlate  of  each  other.  The  union  of  their 
names  is  natural,  and  will,  no  doubt,  be  perpetual. 

In  like  manner  the  names  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  stand 


Wesley  and  Whitefield. 


351 


together  on  the  page  of  history.  To  the  initiated,  who  under- 
stand the  difference  between  the  two  men,  and  who  know  of 
the  separation  which  took  place  early  in  their  public  history, 
this  union  may  appear  unnatural,  and  it  is  more  than  possible 
that  on  both  sides  some  followers  of  the  one  may  not  think  he 
is  honored  by  being  classed  with  the  other ; but,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  the  two  names  are  braced  together,  and  we  believe 
will  be  so  even  to  the  end.  The  association,  too,  we  believe,  is 
quite  natural.  The  differences  between  them  were  important 
if  not  vital ; but  they  were  inward.  To  the  outside  world  the 
connection  and  resemblance  were  much  more  apparent  than 
the  divergence  and  the  dissimilarity.  Thny  lived  in  the  same 
era  and  were  both  identified  from  the  first  with  the  same  relig- 
ious movement.  Both  bore  the  nickname  “ Methodist,”  which 
the  happy  genius  of  some  scoffing  collegian  invented  after 
“ Sacramentarian,”  “ Bible-moth,”  and  “ Bible-bigot  ” had  been 
tried.  Some  doctrines  which  were  repudiated  with  vehemence 
by  the  ecclesiastics  of  their  day  they  held  in  common,  and 
these  each  continued  to  preach  after  they  had  pronounced  very 
opposite  opinions  on  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  decrees.  Both 
were  eminent  preachers,  and  both  were  distinguislied  by  a 
splendid  irregularity  in  the  way  in  which  they  exercised  their 
ministry.  In  their  early  life  they  were  intimate  and  endeared 
friends,  and  in  their  early  labors  they  were  close  associates. 
The  junction  of  their  names  on  the  page  of  history,  under  such 
circumstances,  was  to  be  looked  for,  and  let  high  Calvinist  or 
low  Arminian  like  it  or  not,  they  must  reconcile  themselves  to 
it,  for  it  is  inevitable  and  unalterable. 

If  we  are  asked  which  of  the  men  should  be  reckoned  the 
greater,  perhaps  our  safest  answer  would  be,  “We  are  not 
careful  to  answer  thee  in  this  matter.”  We  are  taught  by  the 
apostle  not  to  glory  in  one  Christian  teacher  over  another,  on 
the  principle  that  all  the  qualifications  and  endowments  of  min- 
isters in  general  are  for  the  benefit  of  the  Church  of  God. 
“AH  things  are  yours.”  Hence,  if  we  could  not  give  a com- 


i 


352 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


parative  estimate  of  these  two  men  without  seeming  to  despise 
or  depreciate  one  of  them,  we  should  certainly  hesitate  ere  we 
expressed  an  opinion.  But  as  we  devoutly  reverence  the  mem- 
ory of  Whitefield,  Ave  may,  perhaps,  be  permitted  to  say  that 
we  think  Wesley  was  incomparably  the  greater  man.  We  re- 
gard him  as  the  master  spirit  of  the  last  century’s  revival.  In 
some  things  Whitefield  undoubtedly  led  the  way.  He  was 
the  first  to  perceive  the  simplicity  Avhich  was  in  Christ.  Wes- 
ley continued  as  a ritualist  and  a legalist  long  after  Whitefield 
had  obtained  peace  in  believing.  Hot  till  after  Wesley’s  mel- 
ancholy visit  to  Georgia  did  he  experience  that  “ strange  warm- 
ing of  heart  ” which  was  his  induction  into  “ the  peace  which 
passeth  all  understanding.”  Whitefield  had  passed  from  death 
unto  life  while  yet  at  the  University.  Whitefield,  when  access 
to  the  pulpits  of  the  Church  of  England  was  denied  him,  was 
the  first  to  go  to  the  highways  and  hedges  to  compel  men  to 
come  in.  Wesley  felt  some  reluctance  to  follow  his  friend’s 
example.  He  verily  thought  within  himself,  at  an  earlier  pe- 
riod of  his  history,  that  it  Avas  almost  a sin  for  souls  to  be  saved 
out  of  a church  ; and  now  he  had  a shrinking  from  the  unwont- 
ed step  which  Whitefield  had  taken.  He  knew,  however,  how 
to  crucify  the  fiesh,  and  he  resolutely  made  himself  more  vile 
for  his  Master’s  sake.  We  think  that  Whitefield  more  fully 
emancipated  himself  from  Church  of  England  trammels  than 
Wesley  ever  did.  He  had  no  brother  of  intense  Church  pro- 
clivities impeding  his  movements  toward  freedom.  However 
we  account  for  it,  Wesley,  to  his  latest  day,  showed  a predilec- 
tion for  the  Established  Church.  A terrible  indictment  against 
the  Church  of  England  could  be  easily  framed  from  the  writ- 
ings of  J ohn  W esley,  yet  he  was  a Churchman  to  the  last.  His 
followers  in  England  are  often  reproached  for  their  alienation 
from  the  Established  Church,  and  they  are  told  in  good  set 
terms  that  in  leaving  the'  Church  they  departed  from  the 
spirit  and  counsel  of  their  founder.*  These  taunts  would  be 

* See  Dr.  Eigg’s  “ Wesley  and  the  Church  of  England  ” in  this  volume. — Editor. 


Wesley  and  Whitefield. 


353 


difficult  to  meet  if  Methodists  regarded  their  founder  as  infal- 
lible, or  maintained  the  duty  of  following  him  in  every  thing ; 
but  men  may  have  the  highest  admiration  of  a Christian  hero 
and  yet  be  faithful  to  their  Lord’s  command,  “ Call  no  man 
master  on  the  earth.” 

In  the  matters  named  we  may  acknowledge  that  Whitefield 
had  the  pre-eminence ; but  after  aU,  we  give  the  palm  without 
hesitation  to  Wesley.  His  greatness  grows  upon  us.  Study 
his  character  and  life,  and  he  will  loom  larger  and  larger  upon 
you.  Dr.  John  Campbell  had  an  inveterate  dislike  to  the 
form  of  church  polity  set  up  by  W esley.  He  had  more  than 
one  controversy  with  its  upholders,  but  his  veneration  for  the 
man  Wesley  "s^^as  so  great  that  he  declared  his  belief  that  he 
would  yet  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  Englishman  that  ever 
lived.  This  opinion  will  appear  extravagant  to  many,  but  it 
will  be  thought  less  so  by  and  by,  when  martial  glory,  high 
rank,  intellectual  greatness,  will  be  thought  less  worthy  of 
honor  and  distinction  than  turning  many  to  righteousness  and 
widening  the  bounds  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

We  have  said  that  Wesley  and  Whitefield  had  much  in  com- 
mon in  the  doctrines  they  preached.  Still  it  was  unity  in  di- 
versity. In  the  funeral  sermon  he  preached  for  his  friend,  Wes- 
ley summed  up  the  fundamental  doctrines  on  which  White- 
field  every-where  insisted  as  consisting  in  the  new  birth  and 
justification  by  faith.  On  these  “ good  old-fashioned  doctrines,” 
as  Wesley  described  them,  the  two  friends  thought  and  spoke 
the  same,  and  cordially  agreed.  So  far  there  was  “ no  schism 
in  the  body  ” of  Methodist  teachers.  But  with  these  doctrines 
on  which  they  were  in  unison,  Whitefield  preached  dogmas 
which  Wesley  rejected  with  all  the  energy  of  his  nature.  The 
friends  of  Whitefield  would  not,  indeed,  admit  that  Wesley  had 
drawn  a full  or  faithful  portrait  of  their  deceased  leader.  Un- 
conditional election  and  the  perseverance  of  the  saints  were  with 
Whitefield  matters  of  high  importance  and  paramount  belief. 
These  ought  to  have  been  included  in  any  summary  of  his  doc- 


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The  "Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


trinal  tenets.  Perhaps  they  ought.  No  doubt  Whitefield  was 
a thorough-paced  Calvinist;  but  Wesley  showed  his  good  taste 
by  shunning,  in  the  funeral  sermon,  what  had  been  matter  of 
controversy  between  him  and  his  sainted  friend.  Had  he 
alluded  to  them  at  all  he  could  not  well  have  avoided  stating  his 
disbelief  of  them ; and  had  the  peculiarities  of  Calvinism  been 
touched  on,  what  could  have  been  expected  from  him  who 
embodied  those  peculiarities  in  the  famous  formula,  that  some 
will  be  saved  do  what  they  will,  and  the  rest  will  be  damned 
do  what  they  can. 

Kegret  is  sometimes  expressed  that  Wesley  and  Whitefield 
should  have  separated.  We  cannot  say  we  share  in  the  regret. 
Matters  being  as  they  were,  separation  was  natural,  unavoidable, 
desirable.  “ How  can  two  wallt  together  except  they  be 
agreed?”  Union  no  doubt  is  strength,  but  then  it  must  be 
union,  not  simply  juxtaposition  or  nominal  association.  White- 
field  might  deplore  Wesley’s  publication  of  his  sermon  on  gen- 
eral redemption  : Wesley  might  blame  Whitefield  for  men- 
tioning names  while  attacking  what  he  considered  doctrinal 
errors  : but  these  mutual  criminations  and  recriminations  were 
needless.  What  men  believe  to  be  a part  of  the  counsel  of 
God  they  must  proclaim.  Continued  unity  of  action  to  Wes- 
ley and  Whitefield,  therefore,  was  only  possible  on  the  conceal- 
ment of  their  personal  sentiments  on  matters  of  grave  concern- 
ment. To  men  of  such  ardent  zeal  and  high  conscientiousness 
suppression  of  the  truth  was  impossible.  Some  attempts  at 
compromise  and  healing  the  breach,  no  doubt,  were  made. 
That  in  seeking  to  promote  reconciliation  Wesley  “leaned  too 
much  toward  Calvinism,”  we  beheve,  on  his  own  confession ; 
but  fire  and  water  cannot  be  made  to  coalesce.  The  systems  of 
Calvin  and  Arminms,  in  agreement  up  to  a given  point,  are 
utterly  at  variance  beyond  that  point,  and  the  yawning  chasm 
between  them  cannot  be  bridged  over.  Even  now  we  do  not 
see  how,  in  a connectional  system,  the  “ five  points  ” of  disa- 
greement could  be  left  an  open  question.  Men  can  preach 


'VVeslet  and  Whitefield. 


355 


Oiirist  wlietlier  they  be  Calvinists  or  Arminians,  but  it  is  better 
for  them  to  do  it  from  different  pulpits. 

/O^espite  tbeir  doctrinal  divergence  there  can  be  no  doubt 
/that  these  two  saintly  men  retained  an  earnest  affection  and 
(^teem  for  each  other.  What  Whitefield  would  have  felt,  or 
bow  be  would  have  acted  bad  be  lived  to  know  of  the  con- 
troversy that  broke  out  after  the  pubbcation  of  the  Minutes  of 
Conference  for  1770,  can  only  be  a matter  of  conjecture. 
With  bis  avowed  Calvinism,  we  cannot  suppose  that  be  would 
have  sympathized  with  the  saintly  Fletcher  in  bis  defenses, 
but  neither  will  we  believe  that  be  would  have  homologated 
the  unprincipled  assaults  of  Toplady.  The  splendid  legacy 
left  to  the  Church  of  God  by  the  vicar  of  Broadbembury  in 
bis  magnificent  hymn, 

“Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me,'’ 


will  endear  the  name  of  Toplady  to  all  lovers  of  sacred  song, 
but  our  admiration  would  be  higher  if  we  were  ignorant  of  the 
low  scurribty,  the  unmeasured  abuse,  which  be  poured  out  on 
the  devoted  bead  of  an  aged  and  venerable  servant  of  God. 
Wesley  had  to  endure  the  pelting  scorn  of  half  an  age,  and 
some  of  the  vilest  things  uttered  concerning  him  were  spoken 
by  those  who  thought  themselves  the  peculiar  favorites  of 
Heaven.  Christians  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  they  were 
the  salt  of  the  salt. 

Happily  Whitefield  died  in  the  year  when  this  embittered 
controversy  had  its  origin.  He  was  taken  away  from  the  evil 
to  come. 

In  doctrinal  accuracy  we  give  the  pre-eminence  to  Wesley. 
We  are  far  from  saying  that  he  sounded  all  the  depths  of  the 
truth  of  God.  And  we  readily  admit  that  his  teachings  may 
exhibit  some  slight  discrepancies  ; yet  we  know  of  no  interpret- 
er whose  doctrines  commend  themselves  more  to  our  judg- 
ment and  conscience  as  in  harmony  with  the  word  of  Script- 
ure and  the  facts  of  human  experience.  Hor  do  we  expect 


356 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


tliat  with  the  lapse  of  time  his  system  of  theology  will  be 
greatly  improved  upon. 

Poets  may  sing 

“ Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be,” 

yet  if  the  Christ  of  the  future  has  to  he  a true  Christ,  then  he 
is  the  Christ  that  is  now.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  Christianity,  in  Avhich  the  Church  of  God 
has  believed  from  the  beginning,  will  ever  he  disproved.  Rob- 
inson, the  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  said  that  God  had 
much  truth  yet  to  break  out  of  his  holy  word.  We  do  not 
doubt  it.  But  the  truth  yet  to  be  found  in  Scripture  cannot 
contradict  the  truth  which  it  has  already  made  plain.  We 
cannot  believe  in  a revelation  that  does  not  reveal ; and  we  be- 
lieve that  the  faith  of  the  future  will  very  largely  be  that  which 
we  find  in  the  sermons  and  treatises  of  John  Wesley,  and 
the  hymns  of  his  gifted  brother. 

As  preachers  it  is  not  easy  for  us  to  compare  the  two  men. 
Oratory  can  hardly  be  judged  of  at  second-hand.  Both  were 
great  preachers.  Wesley  was  the  more  logical,  Whitefield  the 
more  eloquent.  Yet  it  seems  a mistake  to  suppose  that  Wesley 
was  a calm  and  dispassionate  preacher,  to  whom  a sermon  was 
only  like  a little  fireside  chat.  He  counseled  his  preachers  not 
to  scream,  yet  he  himself  could  at  least  be  vehement.  His 
preaching  pace  was  not  always  an  amble  or  a canter ; he  some- 
times rode  his  steed  at  a fiery  rate. 

In  courage,  physical  and  moral,  the  two  men  were  equally 
remarkable.  They  could  face  a mob,  they  could  resist  a world. 
There  are  many  men  of  known  and  tried  courage  Avho  would 
quail  before  an  angry  crowd.  The  waves  of  the  sea,  when  tem- 
pest-tossed, are  terrible  in  their  pitiless  power,  yet  holy  Script- 
ure classes  them  with  the  tumult  of  the  people  : “ Which  still- 
eth  the  noise  of  the  seas,  the  noise  of  their  waves,  and  the 
tumult  of  the  people.”  This  tumult  Wesley  and  Whitefield 
could  brave.  Their  moral  courage  was  as  marked  as  their 
physical  bravery.  Raillery,  taunts,  opposition,  vituperation, 


Wesley  and  Whitefield. 


357 


none  of  these  things  moved  them.  To  their  faith  they  added 
courage.  Had  they  not,  then,  humanly  speaking,  the  great 
revival  of  the  eighteenth  century  could  not  have  taken  place. 

In  singlemindedness  the  two  men  were  alike.  Ho  one  can 
doubt  the  entire  devotedness  of  them  both  to  God.  The  zeal 
of  God’s  house  ate  them  up.  If  they  had  ambition — the  last 
frailty  of  great  minds — it  was  of  the  most  noble  and  commend- 
able kind.  Their  ambition  was  to  honor  their  Master  and  ex- 
tend his  kingdom,  save  souls  from  death,  and  hide  a multitude 
of  sins.  That  some  grains  of  earthly  alloy  were  mingled  with 
the  fine  gold  of  their  religious  zeal  we  may  admit,  for  they 
were  men.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  we  believe  that  Church  history 
of  any  age,  of  all  ages,  would  find  it  difficult  to  produce  two 
men  of  more  apostohc  character  and  spirit.  They  were  dead  to 
the  world,  they  gloried  only  in  the  cross.  To  them  to  live 
was  Christ,  and  to  die  was  gain.  Paul  would  have  hailed  them 
as  brethren  beloved,  like-minded  with  himself,  fellow-workers 
for  the  kingdom  of  God. 

They  were  both  successful  preachers.  In  this  matter  it  may 
be  done  to  men  according  to  their  faith,  but  not  always  to  their 
puremindedness  and  zeal.  Piety  is  not  the  sole  requisite  to 
ministerial  success.  There  is  such  a thing  as  aptness  to  teach, 
and  sanctified  sagacity  in  turning  men  to  God.  Hot  every 
man  wise  unto  salvation  is  wise  in  winning  souls.  God  had 
given  this  wisdom  to  both  Wesley  and  Whitefield  in  large 
measure.  They  each  turned  many  to  righteousness.  How 
many  were  converted  to  God  through  their  instrumentality 
the  day  shall  declare.  In  one  week  of  Whitefield’s  life  we 
know  he  received  a thousand  letters  from  persons  who,  through 
his  preaching,  were  awakened  to  spiritual  anxiety.  This  cir- 
cumstance was  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
and  probably  had  no  parallel  in  the  subsequent  life  of  White- 
field.  Yet  it  shows  the  amazing  spiritual  power  that  attended 
his  preaching,  a power  not  confined  to  that  pver-memorable 

week.  Wesley’s  preaching  was  also  attended  with  amazing 
23 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


power  from  on  high,  and  many  souls  will  be  the  crown  of  re- 
joicing of  each,  in  the  day  of  the  Lord. 

In  one  thing  Whitefield  was  obviously  inferior  to  Wesley. 
He  did  not  possess  the  organizing  faculty.  Wesley  was  distin- 
guished for  it  almost  beyond  any  other  man.  Whitefield  was 
a spiritual  force,  an  impulse  ; Wesley  was  this,  and  a wise 
master-builder  besides.  We  are  far  from  thinking  that  every 
great  religious  leader  that  arises  should  seek  to  perpetuate  his 
name  by  the  formation  of  a new  sect.  The  divisions  of  Prot- 
estantism are  undoubtedly  its  weakness,  and  we  long  to  see  its 
breaches  healed  ratlier  than  widened  and  multiplied.  We  com- 
mend Charles  H.  Spui-geon,  that,  wielding  the  mighty  influence 
be  does  in  England,  he  founds  no  sect  of  Spurgeonites,  but  re- 
tains bis  place  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Baptist  ministry. 
Yet  even  he  has  thought  of  conserving  his  work  by  new  meth- 
ods and  new  organizations.  His  Pastor’s  College  was  notably 
an  innovation,  and  its  annual  gatherings  bring  together  a num- 
ber of  men  all  bound,  no  doubt,  to  the  denomination,  but 
bound  by  peculiarities  to  each  other.  We  hojDe  that  the  fruits 
of  Whitefield’s  ministry  were  not  lost,  though  he  did  little  to 
bind  his  converts  together.  Churches,  both  old  and  new,  gath- 
ered many  of*  them  into  their  communion.  Wesley  saw  the 
importance  of  watching  over  the  souls  that  had  been  brought 
to  God  by  his  own  labors  and  those  of  his  “ fellow-helpers  to 
the  truth.”  Pie  saw,  too,  how  the  work  of  God  could  be  ex- 
tended by  the  employment  of  men  who,  it  might  be  with  small 
culture,  birt  much  shrewdness  and  abundant  zeal,  could  labor 
in  word  and  doctrine.  Hence  his  class-meetings,  his  leaders, 
stewards,  and  itinerant  preachers.  Hence  the  formation  of 
a system  which  has  spread  over  the  English-speaking  world, 
laid  hold  of  portions  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  invaded  Hin- 
dostan,  is  known  in  the  isles  of  the  southern  seas,  and  is  making 
converts  to-day  in  China.  We  may  not  all  approve  of  the 
precise  form  which  Methodism  assumed  in  the  hands  of  its 
founder.  The  exclusion  of  the  laity  from  its  supreme  counsel 


Wesley  and  Whitefield. 


359 


soon  led  to  agitation,  npheavals,  and  convulsions.  Botli  in  En- 
gland and  America,  Cliurclies  in  the  direct  line  of  descent  from 
Wesley  have  found  it  needful  to  remedy  what  they  thought 
was  an  original  defect  of  their  constitution.  Yet  this  must  be 
said  for  Wesley,  that,  unlike  the  paper  constitutions  of  the 
first  Fi'ench  Revolution,  he  devised  a form  of  government  that 
Avould  work.  And  what  a tribute,  to  the  constructive  genius 
of  the  grand  old  man,  that,  amid  all  changes  that  have  been 
adopted,  and  divisions  that  have  taken  place,  the  distinctive 
characteristics  of  his  system  are  retained  in  every  Church  that 
claims  to  he  of  Wesleyan  origin.  There  is  a homogeneity  in 
all  the  branches  of  Methodism  ; having  affinities  with  all  Chris- 
tian Churches,  they  have  special  affinities  with  each  other. 
“Lo,  the  people  shall  dwell  alone.”  ISTor  is  there  the  least 
likelihood  of  these  pecuharities  being  lost,  although,  no  doubt, 
modifications  will  take  place.  In  all  probability,  while  sun 
and  moon  endure.  Churches  will  exist  which  trace  their  pater- 
nity to  the  venerable  Wesley. 

Whether  Wesley  or  Whitefield  was  the  more  intense  man 
we  do  not  know  ; but  certainly  Wesley  was  a wiser  man  than 
his  friend.  Whitefield  was  a preacher,  and  so  was  Wesley. 
But  Wesley  was  also  an  acute  logician,  an  able  scholar,  an 
accomphshed  hymnist,  and  a discriminating  critic. 

Some  of  Wesley’s  views  wei’e  far  in  advance  of  those  of 
Whitefield.  We  will  not  specify  Wesley’s  political  opinions. 
These  are  certainly  not  to  our  taste.  Few  Englishmen  of  any 
type  could  be  found  now  who  would  defend  his  views  and 
utterances  on  the  subject  of  the  American  War  of  Independ- 
ence. On  the  subject  of  slavery,  however,  how  clear  and  ad- 
vanced were  his  views ! Once  and  again  he  denounces  it  in 
the  strongest  terms  ; and  it  is  interesting  to  think  that 

“ In  age  and  feebleness  extreme,  ” 

he  wrote  to  William  Wilberforce,  encouraging  him  to  persevere 
in  his  benevolent  hut  Herculean  task.  Whitefield,  on  the  other 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


hand,  held  property  in  slaves.  Some  men  with  strong  vision 
are  yet  color-blind. 

Briefly  we  have  compared  and  contrasted  these  two  great 
names.  Yet,  be  it  ever  remembered,  they  never  regarded 
themselves  as  rivals,  and  perhaps  would  scarcely  approve  of  us 
weighing  them  against  each  other  in  the  critical  balance.  Cer- 
tainly we  have  cause  to  thank  God  for  them  both,  and  our 
thankfulness  will  be  best  shown  by  trying  to  follow  their 
precious  example : — 

“ Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime, 

And,  departing,  leave  behind  us 
Footprints  on  the  sands  of  time.” 


JOHN  WESLEY  AND  HIS  MOTHER. 


the  study  of  the  marvelous  fact  of  Methodism  in  Church 
history  certain  names  occur  to  you,  and  the  persons  repre- 
sented by  these  names  pass  and  repass  before  your  mental  eye. 
Of  course,  the  chief  figure  in  the  picture  is  that  extraordinary 
man,  second  to  none  since  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 
Grouped  around  that  central  object  of  attraction  are  several 
whose  names  shall  be  as  imperishable  as  the  system  which, 
under  God,  he  was  instrumental  in  organizing,  and  wliich 
to-day  is  more  vital  with  spiritual  power  than  ever  before. 

In  this  picture  appears  Charles  Wesley,  the  sweet  singer  of 
our  Methodist  Israel,  who  rendered  invaluable  services  to  the 
great  religious  movement  known  as  Methodism.  To-day  his 
influence  as  a Christian  poet  of  the  highest  order  is  recognized 
in  the  fact  that  his  hymns  are  sung  in  every  land  and  in 
every  section  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  While  there  is  sin  to 
be  repented  of,  while  there  is  pardon  to  be  rejoiced  over,  and 
heaven  to  be  anticipated,  the  penitential,  praiseful,  and  rap- 
turous hymns  of  Charles  Wesley  shall  be  sung  to  earth’s 
remotest  bound.  Hear  the  center  of  the  group  stands  the 
seraphic  John  Fletcher,  the  saintly  man,  but  powerful  con- 
troversialist and  defender  of  the  generous  gospel  proclaimed 
by  the  fathers,  and  now  by  the  sons  of  Methodism  in  every 
part  of  the  habitable  globe.  There,  on  the  same  canvas, 
appear  George  Wliitefield,  and  Adam  Clarke,  and  Joseph 
Benson,  and  Vincent  Perronet,  and  many  of  lesser  fame  too 
numerous  to  mention.  And  there,  too,  appear  the  saintly 
women  of  earlier  Methodism,  Susanna  Wesley,  and  Selina, 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  and  the  Lady  Maxwell,  and  Mary 
Fletcher,  and  Hester  Ann  Eogers,  and  Elizabeth  Ritchie,  and 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Voltoie. 


many  others,  Avhose  holy  lives,  godly  examples,  and  pious 
offices  were  its  chief est  glory.  The  two  central  figures  of  this 
splendid  picture — the  sainted  founder  of  Methodism  and  his 
equally  sainted  mother — claim  our  undivided  attention. 

Can  we  think  of  the  women  of  Methodism  without  re- 
membering that  woman  who,  above  all  others,  had  most  to  do 
in  fashioning  the  character  of  our  illustrious  founder  ? My 
eye  rests  with  peculiar  satisfaction  upon  the  queenly  form  of 
that  “ elect  lady,”  whose  infiuence  upon  John  Wesley  and  upon 
Methodism  cannot  be  overestimated.  The  mother  of  John 
Wesley  was  a woman  of  singular  beauty,  of  rare  character, 
and  of  extraordinary  intellectual  accomplishments.  Method- 
ism owes  a debt  of  gratitude  to  Susanna  Wesley  which  can  be 
paid  only  by  fidelity  to  the  principles  which  have  made  Meth- 
odism a power,  if  not  a praise,  in  all  the  earth. 

Susanna  Wesley,  to  indicate  her  influence  over  her  son, 
has  been  called  the  foundress  of  Methodism.  That  we  may 
see  the  influence  of  this  richly-gifted  woman  upon  her  son, 
let  us  glance  at  her  remarkable  history.  In  Stevens’  classic 
“History  of  Methodism”  the  reader  may  see  a portrait  of 
Mrs.  Wesley  which  is  a study  for  an  artist. 

She  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  women  of  her  day,  or 
of  any  day.  It  was  a sta'tely,  commanding  beauty,  giving 
evidence  of  great  mental  and  moral  power.  In  her  girlhood 
this  power  displayed  itself  in  a choice  which  led  her  to 
abandon  the  Puritan  Church  of  her  father  for  the  Church  of 
England.  Her  father,  knowing  her  thoughtful  turn  and  great 
determination,  did  not  exercise  his  parental  authority  in  com- 
pelling her  to  go  with  him  to  a non-conforming  Church. 

It  is,  however,  in  the  parsonage,  as  wife  and  mother,  that 
she  shone  with  brighter  luster.  As  a wife  she  was  independ- 
ent in  thought  and  vigorous  in  action  in  her  own  sphere, 
but  religiously  recognized  the  headship  of  her  husband. 

When  Mr.  Wesley  was  from  home  Mrs.  Wesley  felt  it  her 
duty  to  keep  up  the  worship  of  God  in  her  own  house.  She 


John  Wesley  and  His  Mother. 


363 


not  only  prayed  for,  but  with,  her  family.  At  such  times 
she  took  the  spiritual  care  and  direction  of  the  children  and 
servants  upon  herseK,  and  sometimes  even  the  neighbors 
shared  the  benefit  of  her  instructions.  This,  in  one  case,  led 
to  consequences  little  expected,  which  showed  a remarkable 
trait  in  the  character  of  this  extraordinary  and  excellent  wom- 
an. The  account  was  first  published  by  Mr.  John  Wesley, 
who  remarks  that  “ his  mother,  as  well  as  her  father  and 
grandfather,  her  husband  and  her  three  sons,  had  been  in 
her  measure  a preacher  of  righteousness.” 

Some  neighbors  happening  to  come  in  during  these  exer- 
cises, and  being  permitted  to  stay,  were  so  pleased  and  prof- 
ited as  to  desire  permission  to  come  again.  This  was  granted ; 
a good  report  of  the  meeting  became  general ; many  requested 
leave  to  attend,  and  the  house  was  soon  filled — more  than 
two  hundred  at  last  attending ; and  many  were  obliged  to  go 
away  for  want  of  room. 

As  she  wished  to  do  nothing  without  her  husband’s  knowl- 
edge and  approbation,  she  acquainted  him  with  the  meet- 
ing, and  the  circumstances  out  of  which  it  arose.  While  he 
approved  of  her  zeal  and  good  sense,  he  stated  several  ob- 
jections to  its  continuance. 

To  his  objections  she  wrote  in  substance  as  follows  : — 

I heartily  thank  you  for  dealing  so  plainly  and  faithfully  with  me  in 
a matter  of  no  common  concern.  The  main  of  your  objections  to  our 
Sunday  evening  meetings  are;  first,  that  it  will  look  particular;  sec- 
ondly, my  sex ; and  lastly,  your  being  at  present  in  a public  station  and 
character.  To  all  of  which  I shall  answer  briefly. 

As  to  its  being  particular,  I grant  it  is;  and  so  is  almost  every  thing 
that  is  serious,  or  that  may  any  way  advance  the  glory  of  God  or  the 
salvation  of  souls,  if  it  be  performed  out  of  a pulpit,  or  in  the  way  of 
common  conversation;  because  in  our  corrupt  age  the  utmost  care  and 
diligence  have  been  used  to  banish  all  discourse  of  God  or  spiritual  con- 
cern out  of  society,  as  if  religion  were  never  to  appear  out  of  the  closet, 
and  we  were  to  be  ashamed  of  nothing  so  much  as  of  professing  our- 
selves to  be  Christians. 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yolujme. 


To  your  second  I reply,  that  as  I am  a woman,  so  I am  also  mistress 
of  a large  family.  And  though  the  superior  charge  of  the  souls  con- 
tained in  it  lies  upon  you,  as  head  of  the  family,  and  as  their  minister ; 
yet  in  your  absence  I cannot  but  look  upon  every  soul  you  leave  under 
my  care  as  a talent  committed  to  me,  under  a trust,  by  the  great  Lord  of 
all  the  families  of  heaven  and  earth.  I thouglit  it  my  duty  to  spend 
some  part  of  the  Lord’s  day  in  reading  to  and  instructing  my  family, 
especially  in  your  absence,  when,  having  no  afternoon  service,  we  have 
so  much  leisure  for  such  exercises ; and  such  time  I esteemed  spent  in  a 
way  more  acceptable  to  God  than  if  I had  retired  to  my  own  private  de- 
votions. This  was  the  beginning  of  my  present  practice ; other  people 
coming  in  and  joining  with  us  was  purely  accidental. 

Your  third  objection  I leave  to  be  answered  by  your  own  judgment. 

If  j'ou  do,  after  all,  think  fit  to  dissolve  this  assembly,  do  not  tell  me 
that  you  desire  me  to  do  it,  for  that  will  not  satisfy  my  conscience;  but 
send  me  your  positive  command,  in  such  full  and  express  terms  as  may 
absolve  me  from  all  guilt  and  punishment  for  neglecting  this  opportunity 
of  doing  good  when  you  and  I shall  appear  before  the  great  and  awful 
tribunal  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.*  • 

Sucli  was  the  spirit  of  the  earnest  Christian  worker,  and 
yet  the  submission  of  the  godly  wife  ! 

Mrs.  Wesley  was  the  mother  of  nineteen  children.  Her 
means  were  slender,  but  her  energy,  tact,  and  wisdom  were 
better  than  thousands  of  gold  and  silver.  Home  was  her 
providential  sphere  for  Christian  as  well  as  for  maternal  serv- 
ices. The  parsonage  was  a school  as  well  as  a home  ; the  mis- 
tress of  the  house  was  teacher  as  well  as  mother,  and  with  a 
discipline  bordering  upon  severity,  yet  promjjted  by  love, 
she  taught  and  trained  her  numerous  progeny  as  few  families 
have  been  educated  at  home.  Mr.  Wesley,  doubtless,  see- 
ing his  wife’s  special  talent  for  the  work,  wisely  left  it  to 
her,  and  seconded  her  efforts  in  every  possible  way.  Ever 
after  the  fire  in  which  their  home  was  consumed,  and  from 
which  John,  while  a child,  was  almost  miraculously  rescued, 
the  mother  felt  that  he  was  spared  for  some  great  purpose, 

* See  Moore’s  “Life  of  Wesley”  and  “Wesley’s  Journal”  for  a fuller  text  of 
this  letter. — Editoh. 


JoHK  Wesley  and  His  Mothee.  365 

and  therefore  devoted  special  attention  to  his  character  and 
studies. 

When  John  Wesley  left  home  for  school  or  college,  his 
loving  mother  followed  him  with  a watchful  sympathy  and  a 
judicious  counsel  that  molded  his  character  and  helped  to  fit 
him  for  his  great  destiny,  and  w’hich  was  highly  prized  by  him 
down  to  his  latest  breath.  We  see  the  wealth  of  her  mind, 
and  the  religious  turn  of  her  thoughts,  not  only  in  her  wise  and 
motherly  letters  to  John,  but  in  her  more  formal  compositions, 
such  as  her  exposition  of  the  Creed. 

She  was  prepared  to  meet  the  spiritual  difficulties  of  her  son, 
and  to  direct  and  encourage  him  by  preceptive  teachings  of 
the  highest  order.  Indeed,  she  seemed  to  combine  the  wisdom 
of  a professor  of  divinity  with  the  beautiful  tact  of  Christian 
womanliness  and  tender  motherhood.  To  her  John  Wesley 
looked,  and  never  in  vain,  for  help  and  sympathy  which  stood 
him  well  in  times  of  perplexity. 

There  is  some  doubt  as  to  the  time  of  her  conversion.  Dr. 
Clarke  and  others  believing  that  it  must  have  occurred  in  early 
fife,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  persons  likely  to  be  as  well  in- 
formed and  as  deeply  interested,  place  it  in  the  evening  of  life’s 
day.  This,  doubtless,  is  based  upon  the  incident  of  that  special 
sacrament,  in  the  observance  of  which  she  was  filled  with  th(‘. 
Holy  Spirit.  “ In  receiving  the  sacrament  from  her  son-in- 
law,  Mr.  Hall,  when  he  presented  the  cup  with  these  words, 

‘ The  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  was  shed  for  you,' 
she  felt  them  strike  through  her  heart,  and  she  then  knew 
that  God,  for  Christ’s  sake,  had  forgiven  her  all  her  sins.” 

Ho  one,  I think,  can  read  Dr.  Clarke’s  “Wesley  Family” 
without  regarding  Mrs.  Wesley  as  a true  child  of  God  from 
early  life.  The  blessed  privilege  of  knowing  of  our  acceptance 
in  the  Beloved  was  a strange  doctrine  in  those  days,  and  many 
struggled  along  in  comparative  gloom,  not  daring  to  rejoice 
in  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  The  experience  of  blessing  in  the 
sacrament  was  likely  that  of  a baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  VoLmiB. 


giving  her  a sweet  and  more  unmistakable  evidence  of  conscious 
salvation.  All  the  evidence  of  salvation  that  could  be  seen  in 
a holj  every-day  life  was  evinced  in  the  walk  and  conversa- 
tion of  Susanna  Wesley. 

The  following  sentiments  from  her  own  pen  will  establish 
the  point  beyond  controversy  : 

If  to  esteem  and  have  the  highest  reverence  for  Thee — if  constantly  and 
sincerely  to  acknowledge  thee  the  supreme,  the  only  desirable  good,  be  to 
love  thee — I do  love  thee  ! 

If  comparatively  to  despise  and  undervalue  all  the  world  contains 
which  is  esteemed  great,  fair,  or  good — if  earnestly  and  constantly  to 
desire  thee,  thy  favor,  thine  acceptance,  thyself,  rather  than  any  or  all 
things  thou  hast  created,  be  to  love  thee — I do  love  thee  ! 

If  to  rejoice  in  thy  essential  majesty  and  glory — if  to  feel  a vital  joy 
overspread  and  cheer  my  heart  at  each  perception  of  thy  blessedness,  at 
every  thought  that  thou  art  God,  and  that  all  things  are  in  thy  power — 
that  there  is  none  superior  or  equal  to  thee,  be  to  love  thee — I do  love 
thee  ! 

In  these  reflections  and  meditations  the  reader  will  see 
something  of  the  mind,  the  spirit,  the  heart,  and  the  piety  of 
Susanna  Wesley.  Of  her  last  moments  her  son  John  gives 
the  following  account : — 

I left  Bristol  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  July  18,  1742,  and  on  Tuesday 
came  to  London.  I found  my  mother  on  the  borders  of  eternity;  but 
she  had  no  doubt  nor  fears,  nor  any  desire  but  as  soon  as  God  should 
call,  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ.  . . . 

About  three  in  the  afternoon  I went  to  see  my  mother  and  found  her 
change  was  near.  I sat  down  on  the  bedside;  she  was  in  her  last  con- 
flict, unable  to  speak,  but  I believe  quite  sensible.  Her  look  was  calm 
and  serene,  and  her  eyes  fixed  upward  while  we  commended  her  soul  to 
God.  From  three  to  four  the  silver  cord  was  loosing,  and  the  wheel 
breaking  at  the  cistern ; and  then,  without  any  struggle,  or  sigh,  or  groan, 
the  soul  was  set  at  liberty.  We  stood  round  the  bed  and  fulfilled  her 
last  request,  uttered  before  she  lost  her  speech:  “Children,  as  I am 
released,  sing  a psalm  of  praise  to  God.”  . . . 

Almost  an  innumerable  company  of  people  being  gathered  together, 
about  five  in  the  afternoon  I committed  to  the  earth  the  body  of  my 


John  Wesley  and  His  Mother. 


367 


mother  to  sleep  •with  her  fathers.  The  portion  of  Scripture  from  -which 
I afterward  spoke  -was:  “I  saw  a great  white  throne,  and  him  that  sat 
on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  the  heaven  fled  away,  and  there 
was  found  no  place  for  them.  And  I saw'  the  dead  small  and  great 
stand  before  God;  and  the  books  were  opened.  And  the  dead  w'ere 
judged  out  of  those  things  w'hich  were  written  in  the  books,  according 
to  their  works.”  It  was- one  of  the  most  solemn  assemblies  I ever  saw  or 
expect  to  see  on  this  side  eternity. 

We  set  up  a plain  stone,  inscribed  with  the  following  words: — 

Here  lies  the  body  of  Mrs.  Susanna  Wesley,  the  youngest  and  last  surviving 
daughter  of  Dr.  Samuel  Annesley. 

“ In  sure  and  certain  hope  to  rise, 

And  claim  her  mansion  in  the  skies, 

A Christian  here  her  flesh  laid  down, 

The  cross  exchanging  for  a crown. 

“ True  daughter  of  affliction,  she, 

Inured  to  pain  and  misery. 

Mourned  a long  night  of  griefs  and  fears — 

A legal  night  of  seventy  years. 

“ The  Father  then  revealed  his  Son, 

Him  in  the  broken  bread  made  known ; 

She  knew  and  felt  her  sins  forgiven, 

And  found  the  earnest  of  her  heaven. 

“ Meet  for  the  fellowship  above. 

She  heard  the  call,  ‘ Arise,  my  love  ! ’ 

‘I  come,’  her  dying  looks  replied. 

And  lamb-like,  as  her  Lord,  she  died.” 


Dr.  Clarke  tvas  utterly  dissatisfied  with,  the  epitaph,  and 
with  that  sentiment  in  the  poetry  : “ A legal  night  of  seventy 
years.”  The  doctor  makes  out  a clear  case  of  spiritual  life  be- 
fore the  season  of  special  blessing  at  the  table  of  the  Lord. 

John  Wesley  and  the  movement  called  Methodism  may  be 
studied  and  understood  without  reference  to  his  father ; but  it 
would  be  impossible  to  do  so  without  recog-nizing  the  place 
and  power  of  the  mother.  More  than  any  other,  she  restrained 
and  guided  her  illustrious  son  in  the  wonderful  work  to  which 
God  had  manifestly  called  him. 

What  would  Methodism  have  been  in  the  absence  of  lay 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


preaching?  It  could  never  have  accomplished  what,  under 
God,  it  has  been  enabled  to  do,  without  its  powerful  aid.  But 
for  the  emphatic  advice  of  Mrs.  Wesley  to  her  son,  and  but  for 
his  respect  for  his  mother’s  judgment,  it  is  hard  to  imagine 
what  might  have  been  the  result. 

Perhaps  the  most  irregular  part  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  conduct  was  his 
employing  lay  preachers — persons  without  any  ordination  by  the  imposi- 
tion of  hands;'  and  the  fullest  proof  that  we  can  have  of  Mrs.  Wesley’s 
approving  most  heartily  every  thing  in  the  doctrine  and  discipline 
of  her  son  was  her  approval  of  lay  preaching;  or,  to  use  the  words  of  her 
father-in-law,  John  Westley,  of  Wliitchurch,  “the  preaching  of  gifted 
men  without  episcopal  ordination.”  This  began  in  her  time,  and  she 
repeatedly  sat  under  the  ministry  of  the  first  man,  Mr.  Thomas  Maxfield, 
who  attempted  to  officiate  among  the  Methodists  in  this  hitherto  unpre- 
cedented way. 

It  was  in  Mr.  Wesley’s  absence  that  Mr.  Maxfield  began  to  preach. 
Being  informed  of  this  new  and  extraordinary  thing,  he  hastened  back 
to  London  to  put  a stop  to  it.  Before  he  took  any  decisive  step  he 
spoke  to  his  mother  on  the  subject,  and  informed  her  of  his  intention. 

She  said,  (I  have  had  the  account  from  Mr.  Wesley  himself,)  “ My 
son,  I charge  you  before  God,  beware  what  you  do;  for  Thomas  Max- 
field  is  as  much  called  to  preach  the  gospel  as  ever  you  were.” 

This  one  thing  in  the  life  of  Mrs.  Wesley  renders  her  wor- 
thy of  the  grateful  remembrance  of  all  who  have  derived 
spiritual  benefit  from  the  lay  preachers  of  Methodism. 

John  Wesley  was  a very  devoted  son,  and  felt,  as  his  mother 
advanced  in  years,  that  he  must  take  his  father’s  place  in 
caring  for  her,  and  smoothing  her  passage  to  the  tomb. 
There  never  lived  a more  self-denying  mother  than  Susanna 
Wesley.  Here  is  an  incident  which  equally  reflects  credit  on 
mother  and  son.  John  Wesley,  when  a young  man,  was  in- 
vited to  go  out  upon  a mission  to  the  Indians  of  ISTorth 
America.  He  at  once  and  firmly  declined.  On  being  pressed 
for  a statement  of  his  objection,  he  referred  to  his  recently 
widowed  mother,  and  to  his  own  relation  to  her,  in  these  touch- 
ing words  : “ I am  the  staff  of  her  age  ; her  chief  support  and 


JoiCN"  Wesley  and  His  Mothee. 


369 


comforter.”  He  was  asked  what  would  be  his  decision  were 
his  mother  agreeable  to  such  a thing.  Hot  thinking  that  such 
a sacrifice  could  be  made  by  his  mother,  he  at  once  said,  that 
if  his  mother  would  cheerfully  acquiesce  in  the  proposal,  he 
would  be  led  to  act  upon  it  as  a call  from  God.  The  ven- 
erable matron,  on  being  consulted,  gave  this  memorable  re- 
ply : “ Had  I twenty  sons,  I should  rejoice  if  they  were  all  so 
employed,  though  I should  never  see  them  more.”  Earely 
has  history  recorded  the  names  of  such  a couple. 

It  is  a high  compliment  to  say  that  they  were  worthy  of  each 
other.  It  is  little  wonder  that  Adam  Clarke,  in  his  enthusiastic 
admiration  of  Hrs.  ’W’esley,  said  : “ Had  I a muse  of  the  strong- 
est pinion  I should  not  fear  to  indulge  it  in  its  highest  fiights 
in  sketching  out  the  character  of  this  superexcellent  woman.” 

Who  can  glance  over  the  Methodist  world  to-day,  and  see 
its  stately  churches,  its  crowded  congregations,  its  vast  mis- 
sionary operations,  its  Sunday-schools  with  millions  of  scholars, 
and  its  educational  institutions  of  every  grade  and  for  both 
sexes,  without  looking  back  over  the  record  of  its  limited  his- 
tory, and  wondering  at  the  stupendous  result  ? 

If  God  ever  raised  up  a man  for  a great  work,  God  surely 
called  and  sent  forth  John  Wesley  to  be  the  organizer  and 
leader  of  the  hosts  of  Methodism ; and  if  God  ever  prepared  a 
handmaid  of  his  to  be  the  mother  of  one  specially  commis- 
sioned and  qualified  to  revive  his  Church,  God  surely  raised  up 
Susanna  W esley  to  be  the  mother  and  spiritual  guide  of  the 
great  reformer  of  the  Churches  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

Much  as  John  Wesley  saw  of  the  goodness  of  the  Lord  in 
the  salvation  of  sinners,  and  in  the  gathering  of  the  saved  into 
societies,  he  was  permitted  to  see  little  as  compared  with  what 
has  been  accomplished  since  his  death.  Though  dead,  he  still 
liveth  and  speaketh  in  the  system  which  he  originated,  in  the 
hymns  which  he  sung,  and  in  the  glorious  doctrines  which  he 
preached,  “not  in  word  only,  but  also  in  power,  and  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  in  much  assurance.” 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


In  the  impartial  review  of  John  Wesley  and  his  mother,  we 
are  constrained  to  acknowledge  that  more,  far  more  than  any 
one  else,  she  not  only  influenced  her  honored  son  as  to  his  own 
character,  but  also  stamped  the  impress  of  her  discipline  and 
doctrinal  views  upon  the  Methodist  system.  In  many  of  John 
Wesley’s  opinions  we  see  the  reproduction  of  his  mother’s 
teaching,  as  revealed  in  her  letters  to  him. 

Every  Christian  wife  and  mother  throughout  Methodism 
should  make  the  life  and  character  of  Susanna  Wesley  a con- 
stant study,  and  the  good  effect  would  soon  be  manifest  upon 
the  discipline  of  our  families,  the  welfare  of  our  children,  and 
the  piety  of  our  Churches.  The  distinguished  son  and  no  less 
distinguished  mother  are  reaping  the  rich  reward  of  their 
consecrated  lives  in  a “ better  country,  that  is,  a heavenly.” 


JOHN  AND  CHAHLES  WESLEY. 


S John  and  Charles  Wesley  were  united  in  heart  and  aim 


A and  work  while  living,  so  are  they  united  in  immortality  of 
fame  and  glory.  If  John  was  the  head,  Charles  was  the  heart, 
of  Methodism.  As  Providence  destined  John  Wesley  to  orig- 
inate and  perpetuate  the  great  Methodist  revival,  the  organizing 
faculty  was  given  to  him  in  large  measure,  and  men  were  raised 
up  for  all  departments  of  the  work.  The  student  of  the  his- 
tory of  those  times  can  never  cease  to  wonder  at  the  constella- 
tion of  talents  that  revolved  around  John  Wesley  as  a center. 
But  aU  were  utilized  by  his  master  mind.  Humanly  speaking, 
John  Wesley’s  work  would  have  been  a comparative  failure 
without  the  luminous  minds,  the  heroic  hearts,  and  fiery  tongues 
providentially  prepared  for  the  epoch.  All  this  assemblage  of 
stalwart  strength,  splendid  genius,  and  rapt  piety,  would  have 
soon  consumed  itself  in  the  fires  of  fanaticism  or  chilled  itself 
in  the  frosts  of  formalism,  if  a commanding  mind  had  not 
been  providentially  furnished  to  give  coherency  and  perma- 
nency to  the  movement.  W e never  weary  of  reading  and  re- 
reading the  deeds  of  heroism  of  the  colleagues  of  W esley.  But 
they  can  scarcely  be  considered  apart  from  John  Wesley  with- 
out destroying  or  obscuring  their  historic  significance. 

Among  the  coadjutors  of  John  Wesley,  Charles  Wesley 
must  ever  hold  the  pre-eminent  place.  These  two  were  so 
related  and  interdependent  that  the  historic  John  Wesley  could 
scarcely  have  existed  without  Charles,  and  Charles  Wesley  could 
scarcely  have  become  the  lyric  soul  of  Methodism  but  for  his 
brother’s  methodizing  mind,  that  made  Methodism  possible  as  a 
continued  system. 

These  two  brothers  were  double  stars,  whose  lights  cannot 


374 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


well  be  spared.  They  have  inner  and  vital  and  organic  rela- 
tions that  do  not  appear  at  first  sight.  The  Omniscient  Provi- 
dence raised  up  these  brothers  as  fellow-workers,  one  and  in- 
separable in  spirit  and  aim.  They  exerted  a reciprocal  infiuence, 
which  made  each  a more  complete  instrument  for  the  working 
out  of  the  grand  and  gracioEs  designs  of  Providence. 

Consider  this  wonderful  and  beautiful  relation  of  the  illus- 
trious brothers.  Charles  was  a divinely  ordained  agent  and 
helper  of  John  Wesley. 

1.  Charles  Wesley  was,  the  helper  of  John  in  their  years  of 
struggle  for  so/ving  faith.  Their  legal  service,  their  gloomy 
dispensation  of  the  law,  their  period  of  asceticism  and  penance 
and  struggle,  was  long  and  terrible.  But  for  the  union  of  these 
sympathetic  hearts  in  mutual  faith,  Methodism  perhaps  had 
never  been  known  as  a force  in  history. 

2.  ChaJlesWesley  was  the  first  called '•‘■Methodist  J Associated 
with  his  band  of  earnest  souls  in  Oxford  University,  he  was 
using  all  means  of  grace,  all  self-denial,  all  deeds  of  charity, 
in  order  to  find  the  peace  of  the  gospel.  But  this  band,  ear- 
nest as  they  were,  would,  in  all  probabihty,  have  dissolved,  had 
not  John  Wesley  returned  to  Oxford  at  the  right  time,  and 
placed  himself  at  their  head. 

3.  Charles.^  some  days  earlier  than  his  brother was  made  a 
happy  partaker  of  sawing  faith.  We  know  not  how  different 
might  have  been  the  currents  of  modern  Church  history  if 
Charles  Wesley’s  conversion  had  not  occurred  as  it  did  and 
when  it  did.  Their  biographers  tell  us  that  the  joyous  conver- 
sion of  Charles  greatly  encouraged  his  brother  John,  and  in  a 
few  days  he,  too,  rejoiced  in  like  precious  faith.  Without  this 
clear,  triumphant  conversion  of  Charles,  as  a prototype  for  all 
Methodism,  John  might  have  stopped  short  of  his  sublime  pos- 
sibilities, and  Methodism,  if  existing  at  all,  might  have  been  a 
mere  revised  system  of  theology. 

4.  Charles  Wesley  was  the  first  preacher  of  the  new  faith. 
The  true  Methodist  evangelism  was  begun  by  Charles  Wesley 


John  and  Charles  Wesley. 


375 


wliile  John  Avas  in  Germany.  The  testimony  of  Charles  in 
pnbHc  and  private  Avas  folloAved  by  happy  conA'ersions  amid 
shouts  of  exultation,  so  characteristic  of  Methodism  from  the 
first.  Who  can  estimate  the  influence  upon  J ohn  W esley  of 
these  evangelistic  tours  of  Charles  in  the  gloAv  of  his  earliest 
love  ? The  effects  of  the  preaching  of  Charles  Avere  Avonderful, 
and  doubtless  influenced  all  the  subsequent  revival  movement. 

5.  The  enthusiasm  of  Charles  was  a help  to  John  Wesley. 
A great  general  is  both  brave  and  prudent,  but  more  pru- 
dent than  brave.  Without  some  coadjutors  Avho  are  more 
brave  than  prudent,  the  best  general  can  scarcely  succeed  in  a 
diflieult  and  perilous  campaign.  Charles  Wesley  kneAv  nothing 
of  prudence  or  caution  in  his  Avarfare  against  the  hosts  of  sin. 
He  dashed  into  the  enemy’s  ranks  like  a AvhirlAvind.  But  the 
incarnate  AvhirlAAund  Avas  needed  in  that  heroic  period.  Mar- 
shall Hey  himself  Avas  not  more  brave  than  Charles  Wesley. 
It  is  but  reasonable  to  believe  that  John  Wesley  could  not  have 
Avon  his  first  decisive  victories  Avithout  the  dash  and  daring  of 
his  brother.  John’s  philosophic  coolness  needed  the  contact 
and  contagion  of  the  flaming  enthusiasm  of  Charles.  Method- 
ism is  doubtless  indebted  to  Charles  Wesley  for  someAvhat  of 
its  hopefulness  and  buoyancy  of  spirit.  That  such  a great, 
gloAving  smrl  should  have  poured  itself  into  Methodism  in 
its  plastic  period  Avas  no  accident,  but  a part  of  the  particu- 
lar plan  AA^hose  unfoldings  haAm  been  the  wonder  of  modern 
Church  history. 

6.  Charles  Wesley  was  the  companion  and  friend  of  John 
Wesley  for  three  fourths  of  a century.  Through  a long  life 
of  eighty  years  Charles  Avas  the  trusted,  true,  and  intimate 
friend  of  his  illustrious  brother.  W e shall  never  be  able,  with 
the  mathematics  of  earth,  to  calculate  the  debt  of  John  Wes- 
ley and  of  Methodism  to  Charles  Wesley  for  his  sympathetic 
companionship  and  unchangeable  friendship  through  the  first 
half  century  of  Methodism.  If  ever  man  needed  intelligent 

and  sympathetic  companionship,  surely  John  Wesley  needed  it 
24 


376 


The  WESLEr  Memorial  Volume, 


amid  all  his  unparalleled  trials,  perplexities,  and  persecutions. 
Again,  we  express  the  doubt  whether  John  Wesley  would  have 
achieved  his  colossal  work  as  a reformer  without  his  learned 
and  lion-hearted  brother  Charles,  whose  faith  and  friendship 
never  failed. 

7.  Charles  Wesley's  chief  glory ^ as  co-worker  with  his  brother 
John,  was  his  gift  of  lyric  poetry.  While  John  Wesley  put 
the  new  theology  into  logical  forms  for  all  future  time,  Charles 
versified  the  doctrines,  and  sang  them  to  his  generation  and  all 
generations.  As  Luther’s  Reformation  was  carried  all  over 
Germany  on  the  winged  words  of  song,  so  the  Wesleyan  Ref- 
ormation was  assured  of  success  when  all  England  and  Amer- 
ica began  to  sing  Charles  Wesley’s  hymns.  Very  few,  com- 
paratively, read  John  Wesley’s  exact  statements  of  doctrine, 
but  the  millions  sing  Charles  Wesley’s  no  less  exact  statements 
of  doctrine  in  his  wonderful  hymns.  These  hymns  immedi- 
ately commanded  the  admiration  of  the  cultivated  and  the  sym- 
pathy of  all.  Strange  as  is  the  statement,  Methodism  is  better 
known  through  Charles  Wesley  than  through  its  illustrious 
founder.  Millions  every  Sunday  sing  or  hear  sung  the  burn- 
ing words  and  breathing  numbers  of  Charles  Wesley,  while 
John  Wesley,  the  founder,  is  less  directly  known  by  the  masses. 

Such  was  the  work  of  Charles  Wesley  as  the  coadjutor  of  his 
brother ; such  the  influence  he  exercised  on  his  brother,  and 
for  his  brother.  But  this  influence,  as  we  have  seen,  was  recip- 
rocal. Charles  owed  an  immeasurable  debt  to  his  brother. 
Without  John  Wesley’s  clear,  crystalline  mind,  Charles  could 
never  have  formulated  and  enunciated  the  new  faith.  His 
poetry  might  have  been  brilliant,  but  his  theology,  without  the 
microscopic  criticism  of  his  brother,  could  not  have  been 
trusted.  John  Wesley  was  a natural  and  trained  theologian, 
and  soon  shaped  his  doctrines  into  transparent  formularies 
which  had  an  incalculable  influence  in  guiding  the  soaring  gen- 
ius of  Charles.  We  accordingly  are  not  surprised  to  read  of 
the  criticisms  of  John  on  the  poetry  of  Charles. 


JoH3T  AND  Charles  Wesley. 


377 


To  prepare  Charles  Wesley  for  his  sublime  mission  provi- 
dence brought  together  most  favorable  influences  and  agencies. 
And  why  should  not  providence  reveal  a solicitude  in  prepar- 
ing this  chosen  vessel  of  mercy  and  benediction  for  the  millions 
of  earth? 

1.  Charles  Wesley  was  fitted  for  his  mission  hy  inherited 
genius.  The  Wesley  family,  in  point  of  genius,  was,  perhaps, 
the  most  remarkable  family  of  modern  times.  It  has  been  said 
that  “ no  drop  of  blood  in  the  whole  Wesley  family,  in  all  its 
branches,  was  destitute  of  genius.  For  generations  they  were 
poets,  musicians,  preachers,  and  scholars.”  But  we  may  add, 
the  full  effervescence  of  this  ancestral  genius  was  found  in 
Charles  Wesley.  It  is  both  rational  and  scriptural  to  believe 
that  the  godlike  gift  of  genius  was  bestowed  on  him  expressly 
to  make  it  possible  for  him  to  achieve  his  high  mission  as  the 
chief  singer  of  the  Methodist  revival. 

2.  He  was  fitted  for  his  mission  hy  rare  scholarship.  His 
thirst  for  knowledge  was  insatiable.  His  scholarship  was  mar- 
velous.* God  gave  him  this  sublime  aspiration  for  knowledge 
to  make  it  possible  for  him  to  do  his  work  for  the  ages.  With- 
out his  rich,  elegant,  and  exact  culture  he  could  not  have  been 
fitted  for  his  mission  as  hymn  writer  for  all  classes  of  minds. 

3.  He  was  fitted  for  his  mission  hy  God-given  pangs  for 
sin.  His  work  was  the  task  of  writing  words  for  all  hearts  and 
for  all  time.  It  behooved  him  to  suffer  in  all  points  like  his 
brethren.  The  Holy  Spirit  unveiled  the  horrors  of  sin  to  his 
inner  vision.  Ho  man  can  sympathize  with  heart-pangs  till  he 
has  felt  the  same.  Ho  man  can  express  the  horrors  of  convic- 
tion for  sin  till  he  can  speak  from  the  depths  of  his  own  expe- 
rience. Charles  Wesley  was  made  to  feel  all  this  for  himself 
and  for  the  millions  whose  experience  he  was  destined  to  inter- 
pret in  immortal  song. 

4.  He  was  fitted  for  his  mission  hy  an  experience  of  the  joys 
of  salvation.  The  bold  imagery  of  prophet  and  psalmist  was 


* “ He  was  a thorough  scholar  iu  classical  and  biblical  literature.” — Abel  Stevens. 


378  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 

more  than  poetry  to  him.  To  his  glad  heart  the  “trees  clapped 
their  hands,”  and  “ the  hills  were  joyful  together.”  The  tri- 
umph of  his  soul  over  the  guilt  and  gloom  of  sin  was  ecstatic 
and  complete,  fitting  him  to  sympathize  with  souls  in  loftiest 
heights,  and  to  sing  their  joys  for  them.  Charles  Wesley 
could  never  have  tuned  his  harp  to  sing  so  sublimely  of  the 
joys  of  salvation  if  he  had  simply  heai-d  or  read  of  them.  He 
must  first  feel  them  and  then  express  them.  When  his  heart- 
strings quiver  with  the  melody  of  heaven  his  harp-strings 
must  sound  responsively.  He  sings  because  he  must  sing. 
He  sings  as  the  birds  sing — for  very  joy.  Ho  saint  can  climb 
so  high  as  not  to  be  able  to  sing  his  joys  in  the  hymns  of 
Charles  Wesley. 

5.  He  was  fitted  for  his  mission  as  the  lyric  interpreter  of 
the  inner  life  hy  a wondrons  gaze  and  grip  of  faith.  His 
nervous  verses  are  “ vital  in  every  part  ” with  an  all-pervading 
and  all-conquering  faith.  His  faith  was  the  special  gift  of  God, 
and  made  him  more  than  a match  for  all  tasks,  all  toils,  and  all 
trials.  It  was  fitting  that  it  should  be  so.  He  was  destined  to 
sing  for  the  millions  who  need  words  to  voice  their  struggling, 
conquering  faith. 

6.  He  was  fitted  for  his  mission  hy  great  afitictions.  We 
can  conceive  of  his  exemption  by  providence  ’ from  all  bitter 
afiliction,  personal  and  domestic.  But  this  would  have  unfitted 
him  for  half  his  mission  as  the  interpreter  and  singer  of  the 
griefs  of  the  worshiping  millions  whose  devotions  he  was  des- 
tined to  voice  in  immortal  hymns.  Thus  the  Omniscient  Provi- 
dence sent  grievous  afflictions  to  blight  his  home,  and  then  sent 
grace  to  bear  all  in  patience  and  sweetness  of  soul.  Thus  his 
heart  was  tuned  to  sing  of  the  cup  of  bitter  grief,  and  then  of 
the  cup  of  sweetest  consolation. 

7.  He  was  fitted  for  his  mission  hy  fierce  persecution.  All 
that  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  must  and  shall  suffer  perse- 
cution, more  or  less.  And  they  need  a fitting  hymn  to  utter 
their  complaint,  their  faith,  and  their  victory.  Chaides  W esley 


John  and  Chaeles  Wesley. 


379 


felt  the  cold  steel  of  persecution  enter  his  own  heart.  But  it 
only  wounded  his  heart  to  cause  it,  like  the  spice-tree,  to  shed  a 
sweeter  aroma.  Those  who  insulted  and  persecuted  Charles 
Wesley  with  such  relentless  fury  knew  not  that  they  were  the 
occasion  of  htting  him  to  sing  with  a new  melody  the  grace 
that  triumphs  over  men  and  devils. 

8.  He  was  fitted  for  Ms  mission  ty  wondrous  knowledge 
of  Bible  truth  and  language.  His  poetry  was  not  inspired 
by  Homer  and  Virgil.  It  was  not  sentimental,  like  that  of 
Watts.  It  was  not  philosophical,  like  that  of  Addison;  but  it 
was  intensely  and  singularly  scriptural  in  spirit  and  language 
and  metaphor.  His  soul  was  filled  and  fired  with  scriptural 
truth.  The  attentive  reader  will  wonder  how  exactly  Charles 
Wesley  can  confine  the  rushing  tide  of  his  emotions  in  the 
Scripture  channel,  expressing  all  things  in  the  language  and 
imagery  of  Scripture.  In  many  of  his  hymns  verse  after 
verse  is  a mosaic  of  Scripture  gems. 

9.  He  was  fitted  for  his  mission  by  an  inexhaustible  fertil- 
ity of  mind.  His  poetic  fountain  was  perennial.  There 
seemed  to  be  no  bound,  no  end,  to  his  power  to  produce  poetry. 
Poems  blossomed  forth  from  his  soul  as  easily  as  blossoms  are 
shed  from  an  orchard  in  spring-time.  On  every  occasion,  grave 
or  gay,  a poem  was  ready  to  pour  itself  out  in  a fervid  torrent 
in  crystalhne  thought  and  musical  numbers.  Hever  did  a lyric 
poet  write  so  much  and  so  well.  After  publishing  ten  volumes 
duodecimo,  he  left  ten  more  in  manuscript.  And  if  some 
poems  were  confessedly  superior  to  the  rest,  none  of  his  produc- 
tions were  without  a spark  of  the  genius  that  has  immortal- 
ized his  name. 

10.  Lastly.,  Providence,  by  a happy  blending  of  all  brilliant 
gif ts,  fitted  him  for  his  mission  as  the  sweet  singer  of  the  nevj 
evangel.  Watts  was  and  is  Wesley’s  only  rival.  This  is  gen- 
erally admitted.  But  in  all  the  elements  that  make  the  Chris- 
tian lyric  poet,  Wesley  is  superior.  Indeed,  Watts  generously 
admitted  the  superioi’ity  of  Wesley  in  his  famous  eulogy  of 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


Wesley’s  “Wrestling  Jacob.”  The  great  difference  between 
Wesley  and  Watts  is  in  the  experimental  character  of  Wesley’s 
hymns.  Watts  describes  Christian  virtues  and  sentiments  as 
a looker-on;  Wesley  expresses  them  as  from  the  depth  of  his 
own  being.  Watts  hymns  his  aspirations;  Wesley  does  this 
and  more,  for  he  expresses  h.\?>  fruition  of  the  gladdening  grace 
of  the  gospel. 

Wesley  goes  as  far  as  Watts  up  the  “mount  of  redeeming 
love,”  and  then  goes  on  and  up  till  he  ceases  to  climb,  and 
soars  away  into  the  skies.  Watts  sings  sweetly  as  the  caged 
bird;  Wesley  sings  as  the  bird  free,  and  winging  his  flight 
heavenward.  Watts  was  more  of  a general  poet;  Wesley  was 
more  of  a lyric  poet  for  the  Church.  Watts  was  more  of  a 
poet  of  nature ; Wesley  was  more  of  a poet  of  grace.  Watts 
was  a poet  of  the  old  prophetic  dispensation;  Wesley  was  a 
poet  of  the  new  pentecostal  dispensation.  Watts  was  the  poet 
of  aspiration'  Wesley  was  the  poet  of  inspiration.  Watts 
was  the  poet  of  hope;  Wesley  was  the  poet  of  fruition.  A 
sinsjle  stanza  from  each  will  reveal  the  contrast.  Watts  loohs 
longingly  toward  the  summit  of  Pisgah,  and  sings : 

Could  we  but  climb  where  Moses  stood, 

And  view  the  landscape  o’ei', 

Not  .Jordan’s  stream,  nor  death’s  cold  flood. 

Should  fright  us  from  tlie  shore. 

Wesley  has  already  climbed  the  mountain  top,  and  sings : 

The  promised  land,  from  Pisgah’s  top, 

I now  exult  to  see  : 

My  hope  is  full,  O glorious  hope  I 
Of  immortality. 

Now,  all  these  gifts  of  mind  and  heart  and  grace  God  gave 
to  Charles  Wesley  to  prepare  him  for  his  place  as  the 
hymnist  of  the  new  theology.  His  collections  of  hymns  have 
been  published  to  the  number  of  millions  of  copies.  They  are 
found  in  all  the  Protestant  hymn  books  throughout  the  Chris- 


Joim  AND  Chaeles  Wesley. 


381 


tian  world.  They  are  translated  and  sung  in  heathen  lands. 
These  wondrous  lyrics — depicting  the  pains  of  the  penitent, 
the  raptures  of  the  pardoned,  the  triumphs  of  the  tempted, 
and  the  beatific  visions  of  the  dying — will  live,  and  must  ever 
live,  while  man  shall  need  words  to  express  the  deepest  and 
loftiest  experiences  of  the  immortal  soul. 

Such  was  Charles  Wesley — the  trusted  companion  of  his 
illustrious  brother  John,  the  first  preacher  of  the  new  evangel, 
the  seraphic  saint  in  life,  the  fairest  efflorescence  of  Wes- 
leyan genius,  and  of  all  the  Christian  lyric  poets  of  modern 
times,  the  prince.* 


* “He  (Charles  Wesley)  was  the  first  member  of  the  ‘Holy  Club’  at  Oxford; 
the  first  to  receive  the  name  of  Methodist ; the  first  of  the  two  brothers  who  ex- 
perienced regeneration ; and  the  first  to  administer  the  sacraments  in  Methodist 
societies  apart  from  the  Church ; . . . the  first,  and  for  many  years  the  chief,  man 
to  conduct  Methodist  worship  in  Church  hours,  which  he  did  to  the  last  in  the 
London  chapels.  ...  As  a preacher  he  was  more  eloquent  than  his  brother. — 
Abel  Stevens. 

“Many  of  Wesley’s  hymns  are  bold,  daring,  and  magnificent. — Milner. 

“I  would  give  all  I have  ever  written  for  the  credit  of  being  the  author  of 
Charles  Wesley’s  unrivaled  hymn  ‘Wrestling  Jacob.’” — Isaac  Watts. 

“I  would  rather  have  written  that  hymn  of  Wesley’s, 

‘Jesus,  lover  of  iny  soul, 

Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly,’ 

than  to  have  the  fame  of  all  the  kings  that  ever  sat  on  the  earth.  It  is  more 
glorious.  It  has  more  power  in  it.  I would  rather  have  written  such  a hymn 
than  to  have  heaped  up  all  the  treasures  of  the  richest  man  on  the  globe.  He  will 
die.  His  money  will  go  to  his  heirs,  and  they  will  divide  it.  But  that  hymn  will 
go  on  singing  until  the  last  trump  brings  forth  the  angel  band ; and  then,  I think, 
it  will  mount  up  on  some  lip  to  the  very  presence  of  God.” — Henry  Ward 
Beecher. 

“ It  may  be  affirmed  that  there  is  no  principal  element  of  Christianity,  no  main 
article  of  belief,  as  professed  by  Protestant  Churches ; that  there  is  no  moral  or 
ethical  sentiment  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  Gospel ; no  height  or  depth  of 
feeling  proper  to  the  spiritual  life,  that  does  not  find  itself  emphatically  and 
pointedly  and  glearly  conveyed  in  some  stanzas  of  Charles  Wesley’s  hymns. — 
Isaac  Taylor. 

“A  body  of  experimental  and  practical  divinity. — John  Wesley. 

“No  poems  have  been  so  much  treasured  in  the  memory,  or  so  frequently 
quoted  on  a death-bed. — Robert  Southey. 

“For  fifty  years,  Christ,  as  the  redeemer  of  men,  had  been  the  subject  of  his 
effective  ministry  and  of  his  loftiest  songs,  and  he  may  be  said  to  have  died  with 
a hjrmn  of  Christ  upon  his  lips,” — Thomas  Jackson. 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


“ His  last  sickness  was  long,  but  was  borne  with  ‘ unshaken  confidence  in  Christ, 
which  kept  his  mind  in  perfect  peace.’  He  called  his  wife  to  his  bedside,  and, 
requesting  her  to  take  a pen,  dictated  his  last  but  sublime  poetical  utterance : 

‘ In  age  and  feebleness  extreme, 

Who  shall  a sinful  world  redeem? 

Jesus,  my  only  hope  thou  art, 

Strength  of  my  failing  flesh  and  heart ; 

O could  I catch  a smile  from  thee, 

And  drop  into  eteruity I’ ” 


The  above  notes  have  been  added  by  the  Editor. 


— Abel  Stevens. 


PEOYIDENCE  OF  GOD  IN  METHODISM. 


A GREAT  river  may  be  traced  to  a single  fountain,  but 
the  fountain  itself  is  a stream  from  some  other  source. 
The  springs  of  the  Amazon  and  the  Mississippi  are  merely 
outflows  of  water-courses  that  are  hidden  from  the  eye,  and, 
on  emerging  from  the  bosom  of  the  earth — the  secret  place 
of  Omnipotence — they  bring  from  the  darkness  those  mighty 
forces  which  sweep  them  onward  through  fertile  lands  to  the 
awaiting  sea.  We  speak  the  language  of  the  eye  when  we 
say  that  the  river  originated  at  such  a point  of  latitude,  for 
it  was  flowing  in  another  realm  before  we  had  knowledge  of 
its  geography.  So,  too,  with  providential  movements.  The 
circumstances  attending  them  are  exposed  to  view  while  their 
causes  He  concealed  beneath  the  surface.  If  we  consider  only 
their  proximate  som’ces,  we  may  explain  them  to  the  intel- 
lect of  observation.  But  this  is  partial.  It  is  as  unsatisfy- 
ing to  insight  as  to  faith,  since  it  leaves  the  core  of  the 
inquiry  untouched.  In  all  this  world’s  affairs  instinct  is  res- 
olute in  finding  out  the  beginnings  of  things.  ISTor  is  the  in- 
stinct unrewarded.  Second  causes  repay  the  backward  search. 
Only  the  lowest  utilitarianism — the  animal  brain  in  the 
senses — is  content  with  explanations  that  stop  on  the  outside. 
A very  meager  philosophy  of  esthetics  would  that  be  which 
taught  us  to  admire  the  chisel  that  carved  the  Apollo  Bel- 
videre  of  the  Yatican,  without  reference  to  the  ideal  of 
thought  whence  the  statue  came.  And  equally  impoverishing 
to  all  our  higher  nature  is  that  sort  of  reasoning  which  sends 
us  from  the  majestic  oak  to  the  little  acorn,  and  then,  by  not 
showing  the  power  of  the  Creator  couched  in  the  acorn  itself, 
fails  to  complement  the  first  impression  of  grandeur. 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Where  religioxis  revolutions  are  concerned,  the  method  of 
investigation  which  seeks  to  understand  their  original  sources 
is  all  the  more  important.  Such  revolutions,  sublime  in 
character  and  infinite  in  results,  cannot  be  located  among 
phenomena  that  simply  address  the  intellect.  Reaching  be- 
yond mere  thought,  they  appeal  to  the  mind,  to  the  whole 
spiritual  nature,  and  hence  the  claims  of  sentiment  and  feel- 
ing, both  as  to  modes  and  ends  of  culture,  must  be  taken 
into  account.  If  history  were  one  of  the  earliest  media  of 
divine  manifestation — if  it  were  j^laced  under  the  guardianship 
of  the  Almighty,  and  deemed  worthy  of  direct  inspiration — 
it  would  surely  commend  itself  to  our  careful  and  painstaking 
study,  now  that  God  has  resigned  it  to  the  hands  of  men. 
And  where  Christianity,  as  the  main  factor  in  any  particu- 
lar history,  is  directly  involved,  it  becomes  us  to  feel  the 
pressure  of  a supreme  obligation  to  search  the  annals  of  the 
past  as  those  who  would  “justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men.” 
Moreover,  these  historic  providences,  working  out  their  issues 
on  vast  arenas,  and  incorporating  them  into  the  hereditary 
laws  of  society,  are  the  conjoint  products  of  divine  and  hu- 
man agency.  As  such  they  become  bone  of  our  bone,  flesh 
of  our  flesh ; and  as  such  they  go,  without  abatement  or  ex- 
aggeration, into  the  common  stock  of  a race  under  God’s 
training.  Only  in  tliis  sense  does  history  speak  with  a voice 
of  infinite  meaning.  It  tells  us  of  God  in  the  past,  that  we 
may  see  him  in  the  present  and  expect  him  in  the  future. 

To  comprehend  Methodism  as  a great  religious  movement, 
we  must  trace  the  antecedent  operations  of  providence,  by 
which  it  became  possible  for  this  system  to  assume  a certain 
organic  form.  The  distinctive  shape  it  put  on,  the  place  it 
took  among  the  foremost  economies  of  the  age,  and  the  marvel- 
ous influence  it  has  exerted,  cannot  be  referred  to  any  happy 
conjuncture  of  circumstances.  By  no  accident  was  England  its 
birthplace.  The  cradle,  the  nursery,  the  parental  home,  were 
made  ready  for  its  advent.  Ancestral  traditions  whispered 


Pkovidence  of  God  in  Methodism. 


385 


some  siicli  development  of  providence;  and  if  no  prophecy 
sounded  the  note  of  near  approach,  the  signs  of  the  times  en- 
couraged large  expectations.  The  instincts  of  private  hearts — 
the  instincts,  too,  of  society,  which  statesmen  rarely  notice  till 
they  are  published  in  actions — pointed  clearly  enough  to  an  era 
close  at  hand  when  a vast  religious  and  social  change  would 
occur.  Had  not  materials  been  slowly  collecting  for  an  edifice 
that  should  shelter  the  homeless  multitude — wanderers,  exiles, 
and  outcasts?  And  what  was  needed  now  but  an  architect 
skilled  to  find  the  corner-stone  from  which  the  structure  should 
rise  in  symmetry  of  parts  and  stateliness  of  proportions  ? 

Hor  was  it  a matter  of  chance  that  the  eighteenth  century, 
which  witnessed  the  rise  and  rapid  progress  of  Methodism,  fur- 
nished a field  for  its  activity.  The  field,  indeed,  was  broad, 
open,  and  diversified.  It  included  mountain  heights  and  ob- 
scure valleys ; hidden  solitudes  and  thronged  thoroughfares ; 
hamlets  and  cities.  Within  its  range  were  found  the  ancient 
seats  of  metropolitan  refinement,  and  not  far  distant  the  abodes 
where  barbarism  lurked  undisturbed.  Almost  side  by  side 
stood  the  mansions  of  the  rich  and  the  huts  of  the  poor ; the 
libraries  of  the  student  and  the  workshops  of  the  mechanics ; 
cathedrals  and  universities ; factories,  dock-yards,  foundries,  and 
coal-pits ; alike  in  this,  that  they  were  outwardly  united  in  the 
gothic  variety  of  modern  civilization,  while  wanting  a supreme 
force  to  give  them  a unity  more  solid  and  compact.  But  this 
great  field  that  the  England  of  the  eighteenth  century  present- 
ed had  been  prepared  by  Providence  for  the  occupancy  of  Meth- 
odism. Had  Wesley  appeared  at  any  time  in  the  seventeenth 
century  he  could  have  found  no  sphere  like  that  which  he  so 
successfully  fiUed.  For  during  that  period  English  society  ex- 
isted by  force  of  extremes ; the  most  startling  contrasts  were 
every-where  the  current  form  of  life ; all  opinions  were  con- 
victions, and  all  convictions  were  in  the  state  either  of  an  armed 
truce  or  of  violent  hostility.  Long  after  the  civil  war  had 
ended,  Christianity  still  dwelt  in  camps  that  frowned  sullenly 


386 


Thj:  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


on  one  another.  By  chronic  necessity  each  religious  organiza- 
tion stood  in  martial  attitude.  This  was  mainly  owing  to  the 
fact  that  in  those  days  men  could  scarcely  hold  decided  views 
on  spiritual  subjects  without  being  the  fierce  partisans  of  polit- 
ical measures.  The  union  of  Church  and  State  was  no  worse 
than  the  union  of  Christianity  and  hate,  as  they  were  then  un- 
naturally connected.  If  under  such  anomalous  circumstances 
Methodism  had  sprung  up  in  England,  how  could  it  have  es- 
caped the  fate  of  other  Christian  bodies  ? 

But  all  this  was  changed  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Mo 
longer  was  England  the  England  of  Elizabeth,  or  of  Cromwell, 
or  of  Charles  II.  The  Bevolution  of  1688,  that  placed  William 
and  Mary  on  the  throne,  put  an  end  to  divine  right,  and  like- 
wise to  hereditary  right,  except  as  determined  by  law ; and 
from  that  day  English  sovereigns  have  been  such  by  act  of  Par- 
liament. If  this  was  the  triumph  of  old-time  political  instincts 
— England’s  historic  past  shaped  to  suit  the  present — it  also 
brought  back  the  clear  common  sense,  the  vivid  every-day  wis- 
dom, the  broad-minded  sagacity,  the  sturdy  virtues  and  the 
noble  temper  of  liberality,  which  were  native  to  the  blood  of 
Anglo-Saxons.  Once  more  England’s  greatest  intellects  were 
reinstated  in  their  high  seats  of  dominion,  never  again  to  be 
denied  their  authority  over  mind.  Then  it  was  that  the  true 
career  of  Bacon,  Shakspeare,  Milton,  Bunyan,  Stillingfleet, 
Baxter,  Taylor,  Hooker,  and  Tillotson,  began.  Business  had 
resumed  its  old  channels  and  carved  out  new  ones  for  the  fiow 
of  commerce.  Enterprise  was  all  aflame  with  enthusiasm.  If 
Watt  did  not  appear  with  the  steam-engine,  nor  Adam  Smith 
with  the  “Wealth  of  Mations,”  till  the  latter  half  of  the  cent- 
ury, the  industrial  energy  of  the  country  was  fully  aroused, 
and  the  way  was  fast  opening  for  the  genius  of  Brindley,  in 
1761 ; for  Hargreaves,  in  1761 ; for  Crompton,  in  1776 ; and  for 
Arkwright,  in  1768.  The  strong  giant,  wearied  by  years  of 
bloody  struggle  and  intestine  strife,  had  stretched  his  limbs  for 
an  interval  of  repose  on  the  renewing  earth,  and  now  he  had 


Peovidence  of  God  iisr  Methodism. 


387 


arisen  migiitier  than  before,  girded  for  conquests  surpassing  all 
former  achievements.  But  although  England  was  making  such 
strides  on  the  pathway  of  empire,  her  progress  was  not  without 
heavy  clogs  that  the  previous  century  had  fastened  on  her 
strength. 

Chief  among  these  oppressive  evils  was  England’s  moral  and 
spiritual  condition.  If  in  1721  king  and  people  could  rejoice 
in  “ peace  with  all  powers  abroad,  at  home  perfect  tranquillity, 
plenty,  and  an  uninterrupted  enjoyment  of  all  civil  and  relig- 
ious rights,”  it  was  certain  that  their  mutual  congratulations 
could  not  extend  beyond  industrial  prosperity.  ISTeaily  every 
other  aspect  of  the  times  was  painful  to  thoughtful  minds,  and 
the  more  so  as  the  contrast  was  sharp  between  material  progress 
and  religious  decay.  Parliamentary  corruption,  organized  into 
a system,  dispensed  with  the  palliation  of  impulse  and  the  plea 
of  temptation,  and  recommended  itself  to  public  favor  no  less 
by  the  cool  audacity  of  its  logic  than  by  the  expertness  of  its 
practice.  It  only  blushed  when  it  failed,  and  never  repented 
except  on  the  score  of  shortcomings  in  success.  Amid  the 
scenes  of  those  days — the  days  of  the  second  George — Walpole, 
who  was  as  subtle  in  sagacity  as  he  was  unscrupulous  in  the  use 
of  means  to  carry  his  purposes,  stands  forth  as  a conspicuous 
figure.  He  was  literally  truthful  when  he  declared,  “ I am  no 
reformer ; ” and  if  there  be  doubt  whether  he  said,  “ Every 
man  has  his  price,”  no  one  w'ould  have  been  surprised  had  he 
uttered  it.  Lord  Chesterfield,  in  the  interludes  of  politics,  was 
busy  transforming  sensuality  into  a fine  art.  If  these  men 
were  not  exact  types  of  upper  English  society,  unquestionably 
they  were  exponents  of  some  characteristic  qualities  which  had 
then  the  support  of  fashion.  Turning  to  religious  interests,  we 
often  see  the  prelate  sunk  in  the  politician  ; while  the  clergy, 
for  the  most  part,  were  “ the  most  remiss  of  their  labors  in  pri^ 
vate,  and  the  least  severe  in  their  lives.”  Green  quotes  Mont- 
esquieu as  saying  of  the  higher  circles  of  England : “ Every 
one  laughs  if  one  talks  of  religion ; ” and  at  a later  period 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Hannah  More  writes  : “We  saw  but  one  Bible  in  the  parish  of 
Cheddar,  and  that  was  used  to  prop  a flower-pot.” 

To  the  intellect  of  the  senses  the  signs  of  the  times' — espe- 
cially during  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century — were 
gloomy  enough  for  despair.  Beneath  an  inert  religion,  the 
philosophy  of  sensation  was  practically  in  league  with  the  creed 
of  materialism.  The  pendulum  of  opinion  and  theoretic  mor- 
als played  between  Hobbes  and  Locke.  If  all  metaphysical 
sj)eculations  were  drifting  toward  a yawning  gulf,  the  main  idea 
of  many  as  to  the  Church  was,  that  of  a safeguard  against 
Popery.  With  this  idea  they  were  content.  Beyond  it  they 
saw  little  or  nothing.  Pulpit  speech  was  thin,  hesitant,  and 
broken,  and  the  voice  of  praise  lacked  the  deep  inspirations  of 
sacred  song.  Toward  any  high  ideals  the  public  mind  was  not 
only  indifferent,  hut  insensate.  Literature  had  lapsed  into  an 
after-dinner  pleasure.  Richardson  had  not  yet  come  to  reform 
and  elevate  fiction,  nor  Hogarth  to  satirize  folly  and  vice  with 
deeper  cuts  than  those  which  marked  the  engraver’s  plate.* 
Despite  all  this,  tokens  of  better  days  were  not  wanting.  The 
middle-class — then  as  before  and  since — was  holding  on  to  good 
old  English  traditions,  and  looking  prayerfully  and  trustingly 
for  a mighty  change  in  the  posture  of  affairs.  There  was  a 
Jordan  with  its  baptismal  waters,  though  it  emptied  its  current 
into  a Dead  Sea.  Sheltered  spots  there  were,  past  which  this 
Jordan  flowed  ; nooks  of  beauty,  glebe  and  glade  not  unknown 
to  history  and  poetry,  resting-places  for  sandaled  pilgrims, 
cloisters  for  holy  meditation,  libraries  in  which  the  pen  thrived 
at  its  blessed  work,  homes  where  the  domestic  spirit  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  retained  all  its  hereditary  virtue  and  tenderness, 
parishes  and  pulpits  in  which  Christianity  was  still  the  religion 
of  Christ  and  his  atoning  cross. 

One  of  these  was  Ep worth,  a name  now  famous  in  the 
world.  It  was  the  home  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  father  of 

* Hogarth  finished  the  “Harlot’s  Progress”  in  1731;  Richardson  published 
“Pamela”  in  1741. 


PeovidejSTCe  of  God  est  Methodism. 


389 


Jolin  "Wesley,  the  founder  of  Methodism.  He  was  a minister 
of  the  Established  Chnrch,  a most  earnest  and  spiritual  man, 
truthful  and  sincere  and  heroic,  a piece  of  incarnate  granite,  yet 
most  kind  and  loving,  pliant  in  his  own  hands  when  convic- 
tions and  impulses  seized  him,  but  immovable  by  others  if  his 
mind  was  made  up  ; a strong  and  varied  thinker  and  writer,  cult- 
ured as  well  as  educated,  and  withal  far  more  liberal  and  cath- 
olic in  his  s}Tnpathies  than  some  critics  have  represented  him. 
To  what  seem  to  have  been  hereditary  qualities  of  nature  Sam- 
uel Wesley  added  traits  of  character  distinctly  his  own.  Like 
his  grandfather,  Bartholomew  Westley,  and  his  father,  John 
Westley,  he  had  an  impressible  and  energetic  temperament, 
full  of  latent  force,  and  capable  of  intense  action.  Like  them, 
he  was  deeply  interested  in  public  matters  and  held  stanchly 
to  the  creed  in  which  he  believed,  whether  political,  ecclesias- 
tical, or  doctrinal.  All  three,  Bartholomew,  John,  and  Samuel, 
were  ministers  of  the  gospel,  men  of  university  education,  and 
fine  position.  The  blood  improved  as  it  went  on,  for  Samuel 
appears  to  have  been  the  ablest  man  of  the  three,  having  an 
intellect  of  broader  compass  and  of  fuller  contact  with  the 
movements  of  the  age.  His  literary  labors  were  remarkable. 
Smith’s  “History  of  Wesleyan  Methodism”  states  that  “be- 
sides a great  number  of  smaller  but  respectable  poems,  he 
dedicated  his  ‘Life  of  Christ,’  in  verse,  to  Queen  Mary;  the 
‘ History  of  the  Old  and  Hew  Testament  ’ to  Queen  Anne  ; and 
his  grand  and  elaborate  Latin  dissertations  on  the  ‘Book  of 
Job’  to  Queen  Caroline.  After  this  he  ‘plunged  into  the 
depths  of  Oriental  philosophy  and  literature,’  to  prepare  him- 
seK  for  a new  edition  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  on  an  original 
plan.”  Besides  these  works  he  projected  a scheme  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  East.  That  he  was  an  educated  thinker, 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  phrase,  cannot  be  doubted ; and  that 
his  moral  sympathies  were  as  acute  and  active  as  his  intel- 
lectual powers  were  versatile  and  commanding  is  also  certain. 

Of  transmitted  qualities  in  human  beings  our  knowledge  is 


390 


Tjie  Wesley  ME:\roEiAL  Volujie. 


scanty  and  imperfect.  A veil  hangs  over  the  subject  inwrought 
with  hieroglyphics,  and  we  have  only  glimpses  of  light  and 
interpretation.  Yet  who  can  fail  to  detect  the  large  thought 
and  generous  impulses  of  the  father  in  his  son  John — a 
beautiful  presence  that  abode  within  him,  and  a surviving 
power  of  strength  and  greatness  after  the  father’s  death  ? 
The  indomitable  Yuli  and  dauntless  courage,  resting  upon  a 
temperam.ent  competent  to  sustain  them  in  any  crisis  of 
hazard ; the  spontaneous  delight  in  activity ; the  missionary 
spirit  of  brotherly  heljDfulness ; the  love  that  gathered  into  its 
fervent  soul  all  the  forms  of  humaneness,  philanthropy,  and 
Christian  charity ; the  alliance  of  tongue  and  pen  in  the  serv- 
ice of  Christ ; have  not  these  descended  from  ancestral  heights 
to  the  founder  of  Methodism,  and  gained  momentum  as  they 
sought  a lodgment  in  his  nature  ? Add  to  these  certain  char- 
acteristics of  his  mother,  Susanna  W esley  ; her  skill  in  practi- 
cal affairs,  the  keen  insight  and  the  achieving  hand,  the  happy 
union  of  wisdom  and  sentiment,  the  quick  sense  of  providence 
and  the  instinct  of  trust  ripened  into  faith,  the  sweetness  of  her 
self-denial  and  the  touches  of  chastening  that  brought  out  the 
full  beauty  of  her  maternal  soul — how  much  of  all  this  was  re- 
produced in  John  Wesley,  and  how  finely  it  blended  with  the 
father,  Samuel  Wesley,  in  his  temperament  and  nature  and 
character ! 

John  Wesley  was  born  June  17,  1703,  and  he  died  March 
2,  1791!  If  his  life  began  with  the  opening  years  of  the 
century  it  continued  nearly  to  its  close.  Few  lives  have  evei 
run  so  uniformly  with  a century,  and  fewer  still  have  done  so 
much  to  make  their  century  memorable.  Passing  over  his  early 
years,  his  university  education,  labors  in  Georgia,  return  to  En- 
gland, visit  to  the  continent,  all  the  experiences  and  struggles 
that  coalesced  to  form  his  young  manhood,  let  us  view  him 
in  1740,  when  the  Methodist  Society  became  a distinct  organ- 
ization. On  the  surface  his  position  and  attitude  seem  strange, 
if  not  somewhat  eccentric.  His  natural  tastes  and  inclinations 


Pkovidekce  of  God  in  Methodism, 


391 


are  not  in  harmony  with  his  circumstances,  and  yet  these  cir- 
cumstances press  him  more  and  more  out  of  himself ; so  that 
Mesley,  with  his  richly-endowed  mind,  with  his  large  scholar- 
ship and  culture,  and  especially  with  his  love  of  order  and  rev- 
erence for  Church  authority,  finds  himself  being  transformed 
into  a new  Wesley,  a most  unconventional  person,  a companion 
and  associate  and  kinsman  of  humble  souls,  and  a zealous  sym- 
pathizer with  the  Pauline  spirit  that  sought  the  evangelization 
of  the  world.  If  the  philosophy  of  the  senses  could  explain 
this  phenomenon,  it  would  cease  to  be  the  philosophy  of  the 
senses.  But,  assuming  Providence,  and  the  influence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  on  the  heart,  it  all  becomes  perfectly  explicable. 
Silent  and  unconscious  accesses  were  found  to  his  inner  life  ; 
he  was  slowly  and  radically  changed ; he  was  revolutionized, 
and  he  was  a wonder  and  a mystery  unto  himself.  Well  that 
it  was  so  ; for  had  it  been  otherwise,  he  would  never  have  be- 
come the  foremost  of  modern  reformers. 

Sensibility  to  Providence  and  to  the  Spirit’s  operations  forms 
the  basic  constituent  of  a great  Christian  leader.  The  two  are 
always  one  in  every  gifted  man  called  to  such  a work.  Hature — 
God  in  nature — supplies  the  instinctive  sensitiveness  to  unsen- 
suous  impressions  ; and  this  native  sensitiveness  to  imagination 
and  ideal  impulses  was  gradually  matured  in  Wesley  until  it 
became  a wise  and  well-poised  sensibility.  Yet  the  reactions 
would  often  set  in.  To  preach  in  the  open  air  cost  him  a 
severe  conflict  with  himseK.  His  friend  Hervey  resisted  the 
glaring  innovation.  He  lost  other  dear  friends — Whitefield, 
Gambold,  and  Stonehouse — on  other  issues,  and  his  brother 
Charles  was  shaken  as  to  this  policy.  Moreover,  he  was  sorely 
perplexed  as  to  the  responsibility  involved  in  building  chapels, 
nor  could  he  see  where  he  might  find  helpers  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Societies.  But  never  were  the  words  in  M.  An- 
gelo’s sonnet  more  fully  verified  : — 

“ Just  as  tlie  marble  wastes, 

The  statue  grows;” 


25 


392  Tub  Weslet  Memorial  Volume, 

for  wliile  lie  was  severely  tried  in  giving  up  his  Iligh-Clinrch 
principles,  in  abandoning  the  most  charming  associations  of 
his  young  manhood,  in  resigning  his  favorite  pursuits,  and  in 
separating  from  cherished  companions,  he  was  undergoing  the 
best  possible  discipline  for  the  attainment  of  that  most  marked 
individuality  which  shone  so  resplendently  in  his  subsequent 
career.  Personality,  in  its  free  and  original  type,  is  the  rarest 
of  human  developments.  Vot  one  man  in  ten  thousand  ever 
reaches  the  consciousness  of  his  real  life.  In  itself  it  is  a most 
occult  thing,  and  our  modes  of  life  are  such  that  it  is  constantly 
retreating  to  those  hidden  vaults  which  chamber  the  future  soul 
and  conceal  it  from  discernment.  But  Wesley  was  taught  him- 
self, made  to  see  and  feel  himself,  made  to  realize  himself,  made 
to  use  himself ; and  thus  he  was  qualified,  by  tlie  co-operations 
of  Providence  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  the  wonderful  service 
that  he  rendered  to  the  world,  when  the  world  needed,  more  than 
any  other  providential  gift,  a man  trained  just  as  he  was  trained. 

The  occasion  soon  presented  itself  for  Wesley  to  learn  an- 
other lesson  under  the  tuition  of  Providence.  Like  all  reform- 
ers, he  drew  many  of  his  greatest  ideas  from  the  past,  his  con- 
structive skill  displaying  itself  in  the  shape  he  gave  those  ideas 
in  adapting  them  to  his  object.  For  instance,  the  conception 
of  societies  as  adjuncts  to  the  Churches  in  the  work  of  evangeli- 
zation dates  much  farther  back  than  Wesley’s  times.  The 
“ Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Manners'  ” was  first  estab- 
lished about  the  year  1677.'^'  According  to  Bishop  Burnet,  such 


* Wesley’s  Societies,  however,  differed  widely  from  the  “Society  for  the  Refor- 
mation of  Manners,”  which  was  begun  in  the  reign  of  King  William,  was  irregularly 
continued  through  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  was  defunct  from  IISO  to  lIoV,  and 
was  revived  in  1757  by  the  Methodist  movement.  They  equally  differed  from  the 
“Society  for  Promoting' Christian  Knowledge,”  founded  in  1699,  and  from  the  “So- 
ciety for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,”  founded  in  WOl.  The 
Methodist  Societies,  though  not  in  name,  were,  in  many  regards,  from  the  first 
truly  a Christian  Church.  When  Wesley  adopted  lay  preaching  and  lay  ordination, 
his  Societies  became  in  /aci  the  Church  of  his  own  ideal.  Wesley  did  not  so 
intend,  nor  did  he  ever  admit  that  this  was  so.  But  Lord  Mansfield  was  right 
when  he  declared  that  “ ordination  is  separation,”  and  in  this  opinion  Charles 
Wesley  concurred. — Editor. 


ProvidejN'ce  of  God  nsr  Methodism. 


393 


societies  had  been  active  in  good  works,  and  had  enlisted  men 
like  Dr.  Beveridge  and  Dr.  Ilorneck,  in  tlieir  support.  Tyer- 
inan  states,  that  “ the  religious  societies  were  altogether  com- 
posed of  members  of  the  Church  of  England  ; the  Reformation 
Society  was  composed  of  members  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  of  other  Churches  as  well.” 

In  1698  Samuel  Wesley  preached  an  able  and  most  pungent 
sermon  before  the  “ Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Manners,” 
wherein  many  thoughts  like  these  occur ; “ The  sword  of  justice 
uo  longer  lies  rusting  and  idle,  but  is  drawn  and  furbished  for 
the  battle,  and  glitters  against  the  enemies  of  God  and  of  our 
country.  . . . Let  us  often  read  the  lives  of  martyrs.  , . . 
Forbid  none  from  casting  out  devils,  because  he  follows  not 
with  youP  If,  now,  these  societies  had  set  before  John  Wesley 
examples  of  wide  and  varied  usefulness,  it  was  eminently  wise 
in  him  to  adopt  a principle  of  action  that  had  been  fully 
tested.  The  obligation  was  the  more  stringent  because  of  the 
fact  that  the  clergy  had  set  themselves  against  the  religious 
movement  he  was  conducting.  There  was  no  hope  that  the 
English  Church  would  take  care  of  his  converts.  His  course, 
therefore,  was  in  the  natural  order  of  events ; it  was  simply 
inevitable ; and  he  had  either  to  abandon  his  work  or  give  it  a 
secure  organization.  And  now  arose  one  of  the  most  embar- 
rassing questions  of  his  career.  It  was  the  question  of  lay 
preaching.  Once  more  the  personal  conflict  began  ; the  old 
prejudices  returned;  and  the  Wesley  of  Oxford  sternly  con- 
fronted the  Wesley  of  the  highways  and  the  open  flelds.  How 
could  he  tolerate  lay  preaching?  Yet  how  could  he  go  on 
without  it  ? This  time,  as  often  before,  it  was  no  choice  of 
his,  but  the  will  of  Providence  that  over-ruled  him  and  the  past 
in  him.  Certain  it  was  that  the  wine  had  again  to  be  drawn 
ofi  from  the  lees,  and,  in  this  critical  moment,  a delicate  but 
well-nerved  hand  ■svas  ready  to  aid  in  the  task. 

Hothing  could  have  been  more  fortunate  than  that  the  issue 
came  up  in  the  case  of  Thomas  Maxfleld.  Maxfleld  was  one 


394  The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume, 

of  the  early  fruits  of  Wesley’s  ministry  in  Bristol,  and  now  he 
labored  in  London,  meeting  the  society,  praying,  advising,  ex- 
horting, enjoying  God’s  blessing,  and  having  signal  favor  with 
the  people.  Maxfield  began  to  preach.  Wesley  heard  of 
it  and  hurried  to  London,  intent  on  stopping  such  a disorderly 
proceeding.  “John,”  said  his  mother,  “he  is  as  surely  called 
of  God  to  preach  as  you  are.”  The  same  wise  guide  said  to 
him,  “ Examine  what  have  been  the  fruits  of  his  preaching,  and 
hear  him  also  yourself,”  and  he  accepted  the  advice,  yielded 
his  prejudices,  and  took  another  step  from  the  shades  of  the 
past  into  the  light  of  the  future.  At  this  point  his  career 
weaves  itself  again  into  his  father’s  history,  since  nearly  fifty 
years  before  Samuel  Wesley  had  urged  the  same  measure  on 
the  attention  of  the  English  Church.  Providence  honors 
blood.  A bud  in  an  ancestor  opens  into  a flower  in  his  de- 
scendant and  soon  swells  into  fruit.  In  this  case  the  good 
results  were  not  only  immense  but  singularly  various.  Almost 
the  entire  ec'onomy  of  Methodism  grew  out  of  this  decisive  ac- 
tion in  using  lay  preachers.  Classes  and  leaders,  contributions 
of  money,  the  conference,  and  the  itinerancy,  rapidly  followed. 
So  that  we  may  safely  affirm  that  the  suggestive  force  which 
supplied  the  ideas  embodied  in  the  system  of  Methodism  sprang 
from  Thomas  Maxfield’s  preaching. 

Let  us  pause  a moment  and  examine  Methodism.  It  was 
the  child  of  providence,  and  never  was  offspring  more  like  its 
parentage.  The  form,  the  step,  the  hand,  the  eye,  the  voice, 
all  reduced  to  earthly  conditions  and  adapted  to  human  rela- 
tions, show  the  original  source  of  its  life.  But  it  may  be 
profitable  to  analyze  this  idea  of  providence,  and  see  the  el- 
fements  which  make  its  constituents : for  if  revelation  has  its 
evidences,  its  proofs  internal  and  external,  its  methods  of  satis- 
fying reason  and  preparing  the  way  for  the  true  faith  of  the 
heart,  so  has  providence  in  the  affairs  of  men.  Any  thing  is 
sheer  mysticism — unworthy  of  credence — that  cannot  be  sub- 
stantiated in  some  shape  to  the  open  and  candid  minds  of  mem 


Peovidence  of  God  in  Methodism. 


395 


First  of  all,  then,  the  battle  of  the  Reformation  had  been 
fought  out  in  England.  After  every  sign  of  conflict  on  this 
issue  had  disappeared  upon  the  Continent,  the  struggle  was 
flercely  protracted  in  England.  Puritanism,  as  a religious, 
ecclesiastical,  and  political  influence,  had  run  through  all  its 
stages.  One  platform  of  principles  had  been  demolished  for 
the  erection  of  another.  One  phase  had  succeeded  another,  till 
its  fertility  of  aspects  had  been  exhausted.  A Puritan  of  Eliza- 
beth’s age  had  little  in  common  with  Cromwell,  and  a Puritan 
under  Charles  II.  would  have  been  a stranger  and  a foreigner  to 
a Puritan  of  1688.  High-Church  and  Low-Church  parties 
had  gone  through  vicissitudes  and  changes  equally  remarkable. 
Calvinism  and  Arminianism  had  been  Anally  detached  from 
party  politics ; and  Rome,  Geneva,  and  Holland  were  no 
longer  inflammatory  watch-words.  The  evil  in  these  warring 
systems,  excited  to  intensity  by  the  state  of  the  country,  had 
expired,  or,  if  not  dead,  had  sunk  into  inertness.  The  good 
elements,  so  fatally  held  in  abeyance,  had  survived  and  taken  a 
prominent  form  in  English  thought  and  life.  But  we  think 
it  obvious  that  this  very  condition  of  things  demanded  some 
new  religious  organization.  If  not,  how  were  the  beneficent 
results  of  this  terrible  ordeal  to  be  preserved?  Various  as 
these  results  were,  they  nevertheless  had  common  quahties; 
but  how  were  these  to  be  aggregated  and  condensed  in  one 
massive  force  so  as  to  reach  England  ? What  was  needed  was, 
an  institution  that  might  gather  up  the  fruits  of  a century’s 
growth  and  give  them  a divine  perpetuity.  We  believe  that 
Methodism  was  providentially  ordained  to  be  just  such  an 
institution,  and,  as  a warrant  for  this  belief,  we  appeal  to  its 
principles,  its  sentiments,  its  Catholic  spirit,  its  deep  sense  of 
human  brotherhood,  its  philanthropic  heart,  and,  most  of  all 
because  higher  than  all,  we  appeal  to  its  reverence  for  God’s 
sovereignty,  its  homage  to  law,  and  its  supreme  trust  in 
the  atonement  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  means  of  recon- 
eihng  God  to  man  and  man  to  God. 


/ 


396 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Look  at  Methodism,  and  yon  find  all  the  best  and  noblest 
characteristics  of  Puritanism,  separated  from  bigotry  and 
cruelty,  organized  in  its  economy,  and  embodied  in  its  living 
character.  Look  at  it  again,  and  yon  see  certain  qualities  that 
Puritanism  never  had— such  as  the  milder  virtues  of  the 
gospel,  considerateness  for  the  weakness  of  men,  piety  and 
compassion,  tenderness  for  the  erring,  and  the  sympathies  that 
bind  men  together.  Its  sensibility  to  truth  has  not  been 
at  the  expense  of  its  sensibility  to  love.  With  it  charity 
is  the  “ greatest  ” only  because  charity  is  the  consummation  in 
which  faith  and  hope  realize  their  completeness  of  scope  and 
fullness  of  power.  Look,  furthermore,  at  its  efiects  on  the 
middle  and  lower  classes  of  English  society,  its  infiuence 
in  bringing  them  together,  its  force  of  assimilation,  by  means 
of  which  one  of  the  most  dangerous-  consequences  of  a revolu- 
tionary century,  namely,  the  estrangement  of  classes,  was  great- 
ly meliorated.  Did  Methodism  retain  for  many  years  its  con- 
nection with  the  Church  of  England  ? That  gave  it  an  oppor- 
tunity to  act  on  the  religious  condition  of  the  Establishment. 
Did  Whitefield  separate  from  Wesley?  Because  of  this, 
Methodism  permeated  the  Dissenting  Churches.  If,  politic- 
ally, the  nation  had  advanced  to  high  and  solid  ground — if  the 
House  of  Commons  had  gained  immense  strength  by  reducing 
the  power  of  the  Crown — if  state  ministers  had  become  minis- 
ters of  the  people — it  seems  indisputable  that  Methodism,  as  a 
complementary  movement,  did  precisely  for  moral  and  spiritual 
interests  what  the  House  of  Commons  had  achieved  for  polit- 
ical interests.  It  aroused  the  people.  It  made  the  people  con- 
scious of  themselves  and  their  inherent  capacity  for  growth. 
It  elevated  and  ennobled  the  jjeople.  Viewed  in  this  light, 
the  seventeenth  century  fashioned  the  gigantic  mold  in  which 
Methodism  was  cast. 

Every  student  of  ancient  history  knows  how  the  Home  of 
Pompey  and  the  Senate,  and  the  Home  of  Julius  Csesar  and 
the  Democracy,  were  in  long  and  deadly  conflict.  And  he 


PeovidejS-ce  oe  God  in  Methodism.  397 

knows,  too,  that  a very  difierent  Eome,  tlie  Rome  of  Augustus 
Cffisar,  emerged  from  tlie  bloody  struggle,  and  that  it  was  tlie 
Eome  of  tbe  Empire  through  which  Christianity  trod  her 
pathway  of  triiunph.  So,  too,  the  England  of  the  Puritan  and 
the  England  of  the  Cavalier  fought  and  bled.  So,  too,  they 
passed  away  iu  their  relative  attitudes  and  aspects.  Modern 
England  is  neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  but  the  product  of 
interaction  and  compromise.  And  it  was  just  this  condition 
of  things  that  called  for  such  a system  as  Methodism,  and 
Providence  answered  the  call.  But  this  is  not  a complete 
statement  of  the  facts.  Suppose  that  we  look  forward  instead 
of  backward,  and  may  we  not  ask  if  England  could  have  with- 
stood, as  she  did,  the  shock  of  the  French  Revolution,  had  not 
Methodism  wrought  its  soul  into  the  masses  of  her  population  ? 
Yet  another  view  offers  itself.  Here,  on  this  western  continent, 
England  had  her  colonies.  All  sorts  of  causes — poverty,  trouble, 
persecution,  enterprise,  philanthropy,  religion — had  operated 
to  produce  the  tide  that  swept  westward.  Endicott,  Winthrop, 
Penn,  Oglethorpe,  were  very  unlike  as  individuals ; but  they 
were  all  Englishmen.  First  the  Atlantic  slope,  next  the  Mis- 
sissippi Yalley,  then  the  Pacific  coast,  the  Horthern  Lakes  and 
the  Southern  Gulf — the  whole  was  contained  in  Plymouth  Rock 
and  Jamestown.  Standing  face  to  face  with  the  grand  forms 
of  nature,  the  contours  and  configurations  of  scenery  every- 
where magnificent,  men  not  only  came  to  a new  world,  but  to 
a world  that  made  them  new.  Such  elastic  energy,  such  reso- 
lute will,  such  diversified  heroism,  such  success  in  winning- 
fields  and  forests  to  the  domains  of  civilization,  have  no  par- 
allel in  the  historic  fortunes  of  our  race.  And  was  there  no 
providence  in  the  origin  of  Methodism  at  a time  when  it  could 
be  transplanted  to  a most  genial  soil,  take  root,  grow  up  with 
the  States,  expand  with  the  population,  and  spread  its  branches 
till  the  spray  of  two  oceans  fell  upon  their  foliage  ? If  Wes- 
leyan Methodism  was  so  well  adapted  to  modern  England, 
what  shall  be  said  of  the  supreme  fitness  of  American  Method- 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


ism  to  follow  the  pioneer,  to  penetrate  the  wilderness,  to  oc- 
cupy the  territory  by  pre-emptive  right  of  missionary  ardor, 
and  stand  with  hands  and  heart  open  to  embrace  the  coming 
multitude  ? 

Society  advances  under  providential  law.  Modern  society  is 
characterized  by  the  number  and  diversity  of  these  laws,  their 
action  and  interaction.  Problems  once  simple  are  now  com- 
plex. The  chief  difficulty  in  all  systems  and  organizations  is, 
to  meet  the  multiplicity  of  interests  which  have  to  be  consulted. 
Often  these  are  at  variance,  or,  if  not  in  downright  antagonism, 
they  are  hard  to  unite.  The  secret  of  power  in  any  project 
seeking  to  act  on  a broad  scale  lies  in  its  adaptability.  To  be 
adaptive,  it  must  be  plastic.  To  be  wisely  plastic,  it  must  have 
firmness  of  texture  no  less  than  facility  of  accommodation.  It 
must  be,  in  all  religious  matters,  conscientious  before  it  con- 
siders expediency.  By  the  conditions  of  success  it  must  be- 
come all  things  to  all  men,  which  can  only  be  when  it  is  one 
thing  toward  God.  ISTow,  assuredly,  Methodism  has  historically 
vindicated  its  claim  as  an  institution  of  providence  on  the  score 
of  adaptation  to  circumstances  most  unlike.  On  the  one  hand, 
we  have  seen  it  exhibit  its  majestic  strength  in  an  old  country. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  have  seen  it  develop  the  same  energy, 
or  even  greater,  in  a new  country.  As  an  impulse,  it  was  felt 
in  the  air  that  all  men  breathe ; as  a sentiment,  it  attracted  Cal- 
vinists ; as  a principle,  it  drew  thousands  to  its  standard  of 
faith.  Speaking  of  the  philanthropic  jiower  awakened  in  En- 
gland, and  “ now  spreading  through  the  habitable  globe,”  Sir 
James  Stephen  says,  ‘‘It  was  at  this  period  that  the  Alma 
Mater  of  Laud  and  Sacheverell  was  nourishing  in  her  bosom  a 
little  hand  of  pupils  destined  to  accomplish  a momentous  revo- 
lution in  the  National  Church ; and  of  this  little  band  John 
Wesley  was  the  acknowledged  leader.” 

Green  states,  in  his  “ Short  History  of  the  English  People,” 
that  Wesley’s  movement  “ changed  in  a few  years  the  whole 
temper  of  English  society.”  It  is  now  generally  admitted 


Peovtdence  of  God  est  Methodism. 


399 


that  all  modern  efforts  for  prison  reform,  improvements  in 
penal  codes,  popular  education,  cheap  literature,  Sunday- 
schools,  and  missionary  enterprise,  are  largely  due  to  "Wesley’s 
influence.  Whatever  the  shape  assumed  by  these  benevolent 
labors,  the  touch  of  one  creative  hand  was  felt  alike  in  them 
aU.  There  were  “ diversities  of  operations,”  but  “ the  same 
God  which  worketh  all  in  all.”  For,  whether  the  fire  is  struck 
from  the  flinty  rock,  or  drawn  from  the  overhanging  cloud,  or 
released  from  the  coal-beds  in  the  deep  earth,  it  is  fire  from 
the  sun. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  Wesley  was  in  living  contact  with  the 
world  at  very  many  points.  This  distinguished  him  from  all 
other  conspicuous  reformers.  He  had  a more  varied  range  than 
Luther.  He  had  far  more  balance  than  Savonarola.  He  had 
not  the  exclusiveness  of  Knox.  And  he  had  a much  truer  and 
profounder  insight  than  Loyola.  Isaac  Taylor  says  : “Hot  one 
of  the  founders  of  Methodism  was  gifted  with  the  philosophic 
faculty,  the  abstractive  and  analytic  power.”  And  further : 
“Wesley  reasoned  more  than  he  thought.  . . . He  was  almost 
intuitively  master  of  arts.  . . . He  had  the  irresistible  force,  or, 
one  might  say,  the  galvanic  instantaneousness  of  the  intuitions.” 
Such  fine  distinctions,  even  if  accurate,  are  of  no  avail  in  practi- 
cal matters.  It  was  the  mind  of  Wesley,  not  the  mere  intellect, 
that  gave  him  such  sway  over  men.  That  he  had  wonderful 
capacity  as  well  as  ability  cannot  be  questioned.  A most  com- 
pact brain  he  possessed,  sensitive  and  extremely  active,  able  to 
reach  his  constructing  hand  on  short  notice.  At  the  same  time 
W esley’s  mind  was  comprehensive — his  reflective  and  percep- 
tive powers  were  in  close  alliance.  Whatever  he  acquired  was 
thoroughly  assimilated  and  became  a part  of  his  nature,  nor  did 
he  give  any  thoughts  to  others  without  the  stamp  of  his  own 
individuality.  The  peculiar  emotions  that  blend  with  the  in- 
tellect and  impart  the  highest  vitality  to  its  functions,  were 
serving  forces  that  never  failed  him.  Along  with  these,  he 
had  the  best  educated  body  that  we  know  of — nerves  and  mus- 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


cles  tliat  "were  trained  to  military  obedience.  Too  much  blood 
seldom  overstocked  his  head.  lie  came  as  near  converting  his 
physical  frame  into  an  intelligent  automaton  as  any  man  an- 
cient or  modern,  and  to  this  much  of  his  usefulness  was  due. 
Free  from  sudden  reactions — still  more  free  from  tyrannic 
moods — he  was  generally  calm,  self-poised,  and  full  of  healthy 
repose.  Ills  resources  constantly  grew,  but  they  never  out- 
grew his  expertness  in  their  management.  Any  instrument  or 
agent  that  came  within  his  grasp  borrowed  something  from 
his  discij)lined  skill.  The  seed-producing  force  in  his  nature 
was  amazing.  Like  all  men  whose  genius  is  rooted  in  depth 
of  character,  he  had  a strong  will,  and  he  enjoyed  using  it. 
But  he  was  not  locked  up  in  himself.  Often,  in  many  ways, 
he  crucified  self — the  self  of  the  intellect  as  weU  as  the  self  of 
the  heart.  Fie  had  the  gift,  one  of  the  rarest  among  men,  of 
hearing  the  voice  of  Providence  in  the  voices  of  human  souls. 
The  suggestions  of  the  humblest  were  never  despised.  Yet  his 
final  test  of  truth  was  the  divine  element  which  he  detected  in 
it,  so  that  his  mind  was  like  a great  dome,  ojjen  at  the  top  for 
light  to  stream  down  fresh  from  the  firmament. 

Looking  at  Methodism  in  its  spiritual  features,  we  must  not 
forget  to  notice  the  sjjecial  emphasis  it  laid  on  personal  religion 
as  the  religion  of  consciousness.  This  has  always  been  its  most 
salient  peculiarity.  The  sense  of  acceptance  with  God  by  the 
witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  given  Methodism  a power  not 
possible  from  any  other  source.  "Without  dwelling  on  its  ad- 
vantages to  the  individual  believer,  we  can  scarcely  estimate 
its  value  as  a sj^ecific  mode  of  thinking  and  feeling  in  bringing 
a body  of  Christians  into  the  simplest  but  strongest  unity.  By 
unity  we  mean  a very  different  thing  from  union.  More  than 
any  thing  else,  this  doctrine,  when  realized  in  experience,  tends 
to  produce  a common  sensibility  which  is  sure  to  expand 
into  a common  sympathy.  Imagine  that  Methodism  ’ had 
established  its  social  institutions  with  only  a secondary  ref- 
erence to  this  great  truth : much  of  its  strength  would  have 


PitoviuENCE  OE  God  ie'  Methodism. 


401 


been  unknown,  for  it  is  this  rather  than  other  distinctive  quali- 
ties which  has  created  its  fainilj  heart.  Coincident  with  this 
fact,  and  yet  diffei’enced  by  its  connections,  we  may  add,  that 
just  such  a religious  consciousness  as  Methodism  emphasizes  is 
one  of  the  most  important  present  means  of  resisting  the 
skepticism  and  materialism  of  the  age.  Mind  is  now  threatened 
by  the  thralldom  of  the  body.  The  science  of  the  senses  is  the 
science  of  investigation,  of  analysis,  and  synthesis ; of  blow- 
pipes and  microscopes : and  it  is  natm-al  enough  that  when 
thinkers  reject  the  testimony  of  consciousness,  laugh  at  its 
dictates  and  scorn  its  intuitions,  doubt  and  dismay  should 
spread  their  appalling  shadows  over  the  entire  realm  of  sacred 
things.  Mo  other  result  is  possible.  If  Baal  be  reinstated  as 
the  sun  god,  our  only  worship  will  be  the  cry  of  despair.  So 
it  was  on  old  Carmel,  and  so  it  must  be  in  new  America.  Ap- 
proach man  from  the  material  side  of  the  universe,  and  he  is 
insignificant  enough.  Analogy,  with  its  mighty  logic  and  still 
mightier  fascination,  is  turned  into  his  worst  enemy.  Fellow- 
ship with  brutes,  or  kinshij)  rather,  is  soon  reached.  But 
change  the  method  of  approach,  and  all  else  is  instantly 
changed.  Draw  near  to  the  soul  from  the  spiritual  side  of  the 
universe,  speak  to  its  consciousness,  and  Christianity  is  the 
answering  grandeur.  And,  in  this  view,  Methodism  may  be 
regarded  as  occupying  in  the  order  of  Providence  a specialized 
sphere  of  activity.  The  long  strife  betw'een  faith  and  disbelief . 
seems  narrowing  dowm  to  an  issue  betw’een  consciousness  and 
sense.  In  this  event,  Methodism  is  worth  philosophic  study 
in  a new  light.  It  may  turn  out  that  the  prominence  it  has 
given  to  the  religious  consciousness  may  be  found  of  unex- 
pected avail  in  the  progress  of  this  warfare.  If  so,  wdll  it  not 
be  remarkable  that  a system  which  has  accomplished  such  vast 
good  in  the  past  should  be  even  more  a prospective  providence, 
and  that  the  broad  wake  of  light  which  it  has  left  behind  it  for 
well  nigh  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  should  be  far  outshone 
by  the  splendor  of  the  f utm-e  ? 


402 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


The  sympathetic  and  diffusive  element  in  Methodism,  to  which 
we  have  called  attention,  was  largely  due  to  the  Pauline  mode 
of  preaching  that  Wesley  and  his  helpers  adopted.  The  same 
thing  is  true  of  the  Methodist  ministry  as  a body.  Taken  as  a 
whole,  they  choose  more  of  their  texts  from  St.  Paul’s  writings 
than  ministers  of  other  Churches.  Their  theology  is  thorough- 
ly Pauline.  Their  spirit  is  St.  Paul’s  spirit.  Their  buoyancy, 
freedom,  and  hopefulness,  ally  them  with  the  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles,  and  they  have  much  of  his  chastened  independence 
and  steady  heroism.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  tliat  the 
hymns  of  the  Wesleys,  John  and  Charles,  had  very  much  to  do 
with  this  wonderful  extension  of  Christ’s  kingdom.  Luther 
knew  the  power  of  hymns.  So  did  Cromwell.  But  it  re- 
mained for  the  W’^esleys  to  develop  their  full  excellence  and 
give  it  the  widest  range  of  influence.  Methodism  has  a 
“ hymn  book  ” of  its  own,  a complete  hymn  book,  a library  of 
song,  a rich  and  beautiful  anthology  from  the  garden  of  the 
Lord.  If  thrown  on  its  own  resources  for  the  language  of 
praise,  Methodism  could  chant  every  strain  that  the  human 
soul  can  breathe  forth  to  Heaven.  These  hymns  are  not  lyric 
meditations,  but  fresh  and  genuine  outbursts  from  hearts  over- 
flowing with  emotion,  the  emotion  rising  evermore  into  affection. 
Hot  a touch  of  vitiating  sentimentality  is  in  one  of  them,  and 
they  are  as  free  from  the  effeminate  fancy  and  tainted  sensu- 
ousness of  recent  spiritual  songs,  as  they  are  from  the  formal 
starchness  of  the  older  hymns.  All  forms  of  doctrine,  experi- 
ence, and  holy  living,  they  embody  in  words  appropriate,  varied, 
and  vivid.  Hor  is  their  genius  ever  put  forth  at  the  expense 
of  piety.  Charming  as  is  their  beauty,  it  never  exists  for 
its  own  sake,  but  as  a vestment  woven  with  reverential  art  to 
clothe  a far  higher  substance.  How  many  voices  tliey  have, 
even  as  the  voices  of  Pentecost ! Whatsoever  in  penitence  is 
subduing  to  pride  and  self -trust;  whatsoever  in  the  first  gush 
of  pardon,  and  peace,  and  joy  seeks  expression  in  rapture ; 
whatsoever  gathers  upon  our  lonely  hours,  and  upon  the 


Providence  of  God  in  Methodism. 


403 


hours  of  trial  and  sorrow  and  bereavement ; whatsoever  wails 
in  the  miserere  of  life,  or  exults  in  its  jubilate^  these  are 
aU  here,  to  lift  the  soul  to  the  throne  and  its  Christ.  Tlie  little 
children  swell  out  hosannas  in  the  sweetness  of  these  hymns, 
and  manhc>od  and  womanhood  pour  forth  halleluias  in  their 
rhjdhmie  gladness.  If  the  royal  psalmist  perfected  Judaism  in 
the  psalms,  the  "Wesleys,  and  especially  Charles,  gave  the  final 
touch  of  strength  and  grace  to  Methodism  by  means  of  these 
hymns.  Had  Methodism  done  nothing  else  but  produce  these 
articulations  of  every  thought  and  feeling  in  Christian  life,  who 
could  measure  the  indebtedness  of  the  Church  to  its  genius  and 
its  consecration  to  such  a task  % Though  we  cannot  yet 
say,  “ Their  line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their 
words  to  the  end  of  the  world,”  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  day 
is  not  far  distant  when  it  will  be  said,  “ There  is  no  speech 
nor  language  where  their  voice  is  not  heard.” 


WESLEY  AND  THE  EVIDENCE  WKITEHS, 
ESSAYISTS,  AND  OTHEES. 


The  religions  apathy  or  indifferentism  which  all  parties 
are  agreed  settled  on  the  English  Church  and  people  near 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  bade  fair  to  end  in  gen- 
eral, if  not  uniyersal,  unbelief.  The  unchristian  spirit  in  which 
the  Deistical,  Trinitarian,  and  Bangorian  controversies  were 
conducted,  even  by  the  orthodox  defenders  of  the  Christian 
religion ; the  Church  abuses — pluralities  and  non-residence ; the 
prostitution  of  Church  patronage  to  State  purposes  ; the  sub- 
serviency of  the  clergy  to  king  and  court,  their  absorbing  devo- 
tion to  23olitics,  their  guilty  share  in  the  political  corruptions 
of  the  times,  their  political  sermons,  their  cold  essays  on  mo- 
rality, their  disregard  of  pastoral  duties,  their  antijjathy  to  all 
that  is  emotional  in  religion,  and  their  exclusive  reliance  on 
arguments  from  reason  and  nature — on  the  external  evidences 
of  revelation  to  the  utter  neglect,  if  not  rejection,  of  that  inter- 
nal evidence  which  the  Holy  Spirit  witnesses  to  the  human 
soul  whenever  Christ  crucified  is  faithfully  preached ; — these 
things,  and  others  like  them,  to  say  nothing  of  Bie  worldli- 
ness and  irreligious  lives  of  the  great  majority  of  the  clergy, 
had  well-nigh  sapped  the  foundations  of  Christian  faith  and 
hope,  and  delivered  over  the  English  people  to  deism,  if 
not  the  dethronement  of  Cod  from  the  government  of  the 
universe. 

In  this  emergency,  the  man  who,  under  God,  more  than  any 
other,  saved  the  English  Church  and  people  from  spiritual 
paralysis,  if  not  from  spiritual  death,  Avas  John  Wesley. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  timely  Methodist  reactionary  move- 


"Wesley  and  the  Evidence  Weitees.  405 


ment,  the  National  Church  and  the  ISTonconformist  Churches 
of  England  were  in  danger  of  being  borne,  bj  the  deistical 
and  free-thiuhing  writers  of  the  century,  into  the  more  gloomy 
and  perilous  regions  of  atheism.  It  was  well  that  Methodism 
arose  and  won  many  of  its  victories  before  the  more  pro- 
nounced Gei’man  skepticism  and  French  atheism  came  to  the 
aid  of  those  who  were  seeking  to  overthrow  the  defenses  of 
Christian  faith.  Happily  for  Christianity  in  England,  those 
continental  antichristian  forces  came  too  late  to  effect  the  con- 
quests they  intended.  For  John  Wesley  had  already  greatly 
revived  the  English  Church,  and  rescued  it  from  its  gravest 
perils.  If  this  had  not  been,  dark  would  have  been  the  day 
for  the  Christian  religion  in  England,  if  English  deists  and 
English  free-thinkers,  triumphant  over  evangelical  Christian 
thought,  had  joined  their  victorious  battalions  to  the  proudly 
defiant  and  conquering  legions  of  German  skeptics  and  French 
atheists. 

But,  while  this  is  so,  we  do  not  say  that  enlargement  and 
deliverance  would  not  have  come  in  some  other  way ; but  we 
d6  say,  that  John  Wesley  was  the  Heaven-delegated  instrument 
by  which  evangelical  Christianity  was  preserved  to  England. 
Ho  doubt  if  Wesley  had  not  been  divinely  sent,  or  if,  having 
been  divinely  sent,  he  had  been  faithless  to  his  high  mission, 
the  great  Head  of  the  Church  would  have  raised  up  some  other 
to  do  the  work.  But,  as  Moses  was  the  Eleaven-appointed 
deliverer  of  the  Hebrews  from  their  bondage  in  Goshen,  so 
Wesley  was  the  special  instrument  chosen  of  Heaven  to  deliver 
the  English  Church  and  people  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
Hor  do  we  mean  to  say  that  Wesley,  single-handed  and  alone, 
wrought  out  the  great  revival.  But  we  do  mean  to  say,  with 
kfr.  Lecky,  that  “ beyond  all  other  men  it  was  John  Wesley  to 
whom  this  work  was  due  with  Mr.  Overton,  John  Wesley 
“ stafids  pre-eminent  among  the  worthies  who  originated  and 
conducted  the  revival  of  practical  religion  which  took  place  in 
the  last  century;”  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  Wesley  gave  “the 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


main  impulse  out  of  which  sprang  the  evangelical  move- 
ment ; ” with  Dean  Stanley,  Wesley  “ was  the  chief  reviver  of 
religious  fervor  in  all  Protestant  Churches,  both  of  tlie  old 
and  the  new  world  ; ” with  Isaac  Taylor,  “ the  Methodist  move- 
ment is  the  starting  point  of  our  modern  religious  history,” 
and  “ the  field  preaching  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  is  the  event 
whence  the  religious  epoch,  now  current,  must  date  its  com- 
mencement ; ” with  Dr.  Stoughton,  “ the  rise  and  progress  of 
Methodism  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  important  ecclesiastical 
fact  of  modern  times,  and  that  Methodism,  in  all  its  branches, 
is  a fact  in  the  history  of  England  which  develops  into 
large  and  still  larger  dimensions  as  time  rolls  on ; ” with  Mr. 
Abbey,  “the  Methodist  revival  marked  a decided  turn,  not 
only  in  popular  feeling  on  religious  topics  and  in  the  language 
of  the  pulpit,  but  also  in  theological  and  philosophical  thought 
in  general;”  that  while  “William  Law  in  his  own  way  and 
among  a select  but  somewhat  limited  body  of  readers,  Wesley 
in  a more  practical  and  far  more  popular  manner,  . . . gave 
a death-blow  to  the  then  existing  forms  of  Deism  ; ” that  Meth- 
odism “ stirred  the  sluggish  spiritual  nature  to  its  depths ; it 
awoke  the  sense  of  sin  and  an  eager  longing  to  be  delivered 
from  it ; ” and  that  “ to  the  age  and  Church  in  general  its 
quickening  action  was  scarcely  less  important ;”  with  Robert 
Southey,  Wesley  is  “the  most  influential  mind  of  the  last 
century,  the  man  who  will  have  produced  the  greatest  efiects 
centuries,  or  perhaps  millenniums,  hence,  if  the  present  race  of 
men  should  continue  so  long;”  and  with  Mr.  Curteis,  Wesley 
(unless  we  except  Mr.  Fletcher)  “ was  the  purest,  noblest,  most 
saintly  clergyman  of  the  eighteenth  century,  whose  whole  life 
was  passed  in  the  sincere  and  loyal  effort  to  do  good.” 

In  ascribing  so  much  to  Wesley’s  influence  on  the  religious 
thought  of  the  age,  we  intend  no  disparagement  of  the  illus- 
trious men  who,  in  the  deistical  and  trinitarian  controversies, 
defended  against  deists  and  Socinians,  the  orthodox  Articles  of 
the  English  Church.  We  may,  indeed,  admit  almost  all  that 


Wesley  astd  the  Evidence  Whiteks.  407 


Mr.  Overton,  vicar  of  Legbonrne,  claims  for  them  in  The  En^ 
glish  Chuj'ch  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  the  recent  and  verj 
able  work  of  Mr.  Abbey  and  himself.  In  vol.  ii.,  chap,  ii., 
Mr.  Overton  thus  introduces  the  Methodist  movement : — 

The  middle  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  presents  a somewhat  curi- 
ous spectacle  to  the  student  of  Church  history.  From  one  point  of  view 
the  Church  of  England  seemed  to  be  signally  successful ; from  another, 
signally  unsuccessful.  Intellectually  her  work  was  a great  triumph, 
morally  and  spiritually  it  was  a great  failure.  She  passed  not  only  un- 
scathed, but  with  greatly  increased  strength,  through  a serious  crisis. 
She  crushed  most  effectually  an  attack  which,  if  not  really  very  formida- 
ble or  very  systematic,  was  at  any  rate  very  noisy  and  very  violent ; and 
her  success  was  at  least  as  much  due  to  the  strength  of  her  friends  as  to 
the  weakness  of  her  foes.  So  completely  did  she  beat  her  assailants  out 
of  the  field  that  for  some  time  they  were  obliged  to  make  their  assaults 
under  a masked  battery  in  order  to  obtain  a popular  hearing  at  all.  It 
should  never  be  forgotten  that  the  period  in  which  the  Church  sank  to 
her  nadir  in  one  sense  was  also  the  period  in  which  she  almost  reached 
her  zenith  in  another  sense.  Seldom  has  the  history  of  any  Church  been 
adorned  at  one  and  the  same  time  with  greater  names  than  those  of  But- 
ler, and  Waterland,  and  Berkeley,  and  Sherlock  the  younger,  and  War- 
burton,  and  Conybeare,  and  other  intellectual  giants  who  fiourished  in 
the  reigns  of  the  first  two  Georges.  They  cleared  the  way  for  that  re- 
vival which  is  the  subject  of  these  pages.  It  was  in  consequence  of  the 
successful  results  of  their  efforts  that  the  ground  was  opened  to  the 
heart-stirring  preachers  and  disinterested  workers  who  gave  practical 
effect  to  the  truths  which  have  been  so  ably  vindicated.  It  was  unfor- 
tunate that  there  should  ever  have  been  any  antagonism  between  men 
who  were  really  workers  in  the  same  great  cause.  Neither  could  have 
done  the  other’s  part  of  the  work.  Warburton  could  have  no  more 
moved  the  hearts  of  living  masses  to  their  inmost  depths,  as  White- 
field  did,  than  W^'liitefield  could  have  written  the  ‘Divine  Legation.’ 
Butler  could  no  more  have  carried  on  the  great  crusade  against  sin 
and  Satan  which  Wesley  did,  than  Wesley  could  have  written  the 
‘Analogy.’  But  without  such  work  as  Wesley  and  Whitefield  did,  But- 
ler’s and  Warburton’s  would  have  been  comparatively  inefficacious, 
and  without  such  work  as  Butler  and  Warburton  did,  Wesley’s  and 
Whitefield’s  work  would  have  been,  humanly  tpeahing,  [italics  ours,] 
impossible. 

26 


408 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


The  qualifying  words  in  italics  make  it  possible  for  us  to 
agree,  in  the  main,  w'th  Mr.  Overton.  “ Plumanly  speak- 
ing,” it  was  “ impossible ; ” divinely  speaking,  it  was  not. 
Wesley’s  and  Whitefield’s  work  was  pre-eminently  spiritual; 
the  work  of  the  great  Church  writers  was  intellectual ; or- 
thodox, perhaps,  it  was,  but  still  intellectual.  The  work  of 
Wesley  and  Whitefield  was  a revival  of  spiritual  Christianity  ; 
it  was  divine,  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power.  It 
stirred  the  inmost  depths  of  the  human  soul ; it  changed  men’s 
hearts ; it  reformed  their  lives ; it  restored  them  to  the  image 
of  Him  who  created  them  in  knowledge,  in  righteousness,  and 
in  true  holiness.  The  work  of  the  others,  though  intellectually 
“ a great  triumph,”  was  morally  and  spiritually  “ a great  fail- 
ure.” It  was  “ icily  regular,”  but  “ splendidly  null.”  It  left 
the  English  Church  and  people  in  a worse  spiritual  condition 
than  before  the  heated  and  bitter  controversies  began.  “ Intel- 
lectually ” the  argument  may  have  been  with  them  ; but  “ mor- 
ally and  spiritually  ” it  was  with  their  opponents.  The  latter 
result  must  ever  be  the  case  when  the  Christian  pulpit  and 
press  conduct  religious  controversy  as  the  Christian  pul2:)it  and 
press  conducted  the  deistical  and  trinitarian  controversies  in 
the  eighteenth  century. 

While,  then,  it  may  be  true  that  ‘‘  without  such  work  as  But- 
ler and  Warburton  did,  Wesley’s  and  Whitetield’s  work  would 
have  been,  humanly  speaking,  impossible,”  it  may  be  ques- 
tioned whether,  after  all,  the  work  of  the  latter  was  not  more 
hindered  than  advanced  by  the  work  of  the  former.  Whatever 
assistance  Warburton  previously  may  have  given  to  Wesley,  it 
is  certain  that,  if  Wesley’s  work  was  advanced  by  Warburton’s 
letters  to  Des  Maizeaux  and  Dr.  Birch,  in  1738,  and  by  his 
fierce  onslaught  on  Wesley,  in  17G3,  it  was  because  a gracious 
providence  overruled  for  good  the  scurrilous  assaults  of  Will- 
iam, Lord  Bishop  of  Gloucester.  But,  of  course,  it  is  not  about 
these  later  exploits  of  Warburton  Mr.  Overton  is  writing. 
And  yet  one  may,  perhaps,  be  pardoned  for  mentioning  them, 


Wesley  akd  tile  EvroEisrcE  Weitees.  409 

inasmuch  as  they  were  suggested  by  the  thought  that  "Wes- 
ley’s work  without  Warburton  was  impossible.  Mr.  Overton 
had  in  mind  Warburton’s  “Divine  Legation”  and  Butler’s 
“Analogy.”  Great  works  they  are,  especially  Butler’s.  But 
did  they  revive  the  nation  ? If  they  so  silenced  assaults  on  the 
Christian  religion  that  its  enemies  had  to  carry  on  the  conflict 
“ under  a masked  battery,”  was  the  Church  made  the  purer  by 
the  victories  of  her  champions  ? Did  any  transforming,  regen- 
erating power  attend  their  utterances?  The  unanimous  testi- 
mony of  contemporary  authority  is,  that  the  age  grew  worse 
and  worse  ; that  if  intellectually  the  work  of  these  great  theo- 
logians was  a signal  triumph,  morally  and  spiritually  it  was  a 
signal  failure.  Surely,  from  every  stand-point  it  may  be  said, 
the  more  lifeless  the  Church  the  more  difficult  the  work  of  re- 
vival ; the  more  irreligious  and  practically  ungodly  the  nation, 
the  more  difficult  the  work  of  reform.  And  of  all  difficult 
tasks,  humanly  or  divinely  speaking,  the  hardest  of  all  is  to 
revive  a Church  which  has  settled  on  the  lees  of  a cold  and 
icy  indifferentism,  however  rational  its  faith  or  orthodox  its 
formularies.  But,  however  this  may  be,  no  one  will  ques- 
tion what  Mr.  Overton  has  added : “ The  truths  of  Christian- 
ity required  not  only  to  be  defended,  but  to  be  applied  to  the 
heart  and  the  life ; and  this  was  the  special  work  of  what 
has  been  called,  for  want  of  a better  term,  ‘the  evangelical 
school.’  ” 

But,  more  than  this,  it  may  also  be  questioned  whether  more 
credit  has  not  been  given  to  the  evidence  writers  than  they 
deserve.  "We  have  already  alluded  to  their  exclusive  reliance 
on  arguments  from  reason  and  nature,  and  to  their  neglect 
of  the  internal  evidences  of  Christianity — to  their  contempt 
for  the  emotional  or  whatever  savors  of  enthusiasm.  And 
we  have  before  seen  that  Mr.  Abbey  claims  that  it  was  Law 
and  Wesley — not  Butler  and  "Warburton — who  gave  the 
death-blow  to  the  eighteenth  century  forms  of  deism.  What 
he  says  is  so  much  to  the  point  that  we  give  it  somewhat  at 


410 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


length.  We  quote  from  vol.  i,  chap,  ix,  “Enthusiasm,”  in 
his  and  Mr.  Overton’s  “ English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century.”  “About  the  time  ‘When  Wesley’s  power  Gathered 
new  strength  from  hour  to  hour,’  theological  opinion  was 
in  much  the  same  state  in  England  as  that  described  by 
Goethe  as  existing  in  Germany  when  he  left  Leipsic  in  1Y68; 
it  was  to  a great  extent  fluctuating  between  an  historical  and 
traditionary  Christianity  on  the  one  hand  and  pure  Deism  on 
the  other.  William  Law  in  his  own  way  and  among  a select 
but  somewhat  limited  number  of  readers,  Wesley  in  a more 
practical  and  far  more  popular  manner,  did  very  much  to  re- 
store to  English  Christianity  the  element  that  was  so  greatly 
wanting — the  appeal  to  a faculty  [the  italics  are  ours]  with 
which  the  soul  is  gifted  to  recognize  the  inherent  excellence^  the 
heauty,  truths  and  divinity  of  a divine  object  once  clearly  set 
before  it.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  respective  deficiencies 
in  the  systems  and  teaching  of  these  two  men,  they  achieved  at 
least  this  great  resirlt ; nor  is  it  too  much  to  say  [the  italics  are 
ours]  that  it  gave  a death-blow  to  the  then  existing  forms  of 
DeismP  If  Mr.  Abbey  is  right,  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  Law 
and  W esley  accomplished  more  than  the  evidence  writers,  even 
in  their  own  domain,  were  able  to  accomplish  ? ETay,  more  ; is 
it  too  much  to  say  that  Law  and  Wesley  did  what  the  others 
utterly  failed  to  do  ? The  great  religious  controversies  of  the 
age  were  “solely  of  an  intellectual  character;”  and,  instead  of 
settling  men’s  minds  and  resohdng  their  doubts,  “ dissemi- 
nated,” says  the  skeptical  author  of  the  “ History  of  Civilization 
in  England,”  “ doubts  among  nearly  all  classes.”  Their  only 
practical  effect  was  to  divorce  theology  from  the  department  of 
ethics,  and,  by  sowing  more  broadcast  the  seeds  of  uncertainty, 
weaken  the  restraints  of  morality,  and  give  greater  riot  to 
licentiousness.  And  since,  as  John  Wesley  truthfully  wrote, 
“ Deists  and  evidence  writers  alike  were  strangers  to  those 
truths  which  are  ‘ spiritually  discerned,’  ” is  there  any  wonder 
that  the  Church  which,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cent- 


Wesley  and  the  Evidence  Writees.  411 

ttry,  intellectually  “ almost  reached  her  zenith,”  morally  and 
spiritually  “ sank  to  her  nadir  ? ” i 

But  the  gi’eat  theologians  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  not 
the  only  persons  who  attempted  to  reform  the  nation  and  failedl 
Equally  futile  were  the  efforts  of  the  essayists,  paintei’s,  philos- 
ophers, statesmen,  and  all  others  who  attempted  it  till  Wesley 
came.  Addison  and  Steele  in  the  “ Tattler”  and  the  “ Specta- 
tor,” Dr.  Johnson  in  “London”  and  “ Yanity  Fair,”  and  Rich- 
ardson in  “ Pamela  ” Andrews,  with  their  pens ; and  Hogarth, 
with  his  brash,  in  the  “ Industrious  and  Idle  Apprentices,”  and 
in  the  “ Harlot’s  Progress,”  boldly  satirized  vice,  and  turned 
against  it  the  tide  of  wit  which  had  been  used  by  the  comic  dra- 
matists of  the  Restoration,  and  their  successors  in  scurrility,  to 
ridicule  all  that  is  pure  and  virtuous  in  man.  The  elder  Wilham 
Pitt,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  in 
the  ministry,  “ with  that  sense  of  honor  which  makes  ambition 
virtue,”  by  an  example  of  pure  morals,  incorruptible  integrity^ 
and  transparent  disinterestedness,  exalted  the  standard  of  polit4 
ical  honor,  and  gave  such  a rebuke  to  pubhc  venality  that  rarely 
afterward  did  corruption  in  high  places  lift  up  its  head.  The 
blameless  lives  of  King  George  III.  and  Queen  Charlotte  ex- 
erted in  fashionable  and  aristocratic  circles  some  influence  for 
good,  and  tended  to  infuse  a healthier  tone  of  morality  and 
religion.  But  all  these  influences  were  unavailing  to  change 
the  character  of  the  nation,  or  to  revive  a sleeping  Church; 
Their  effects  were  only  partial,  circumscribed,  momentary. 
The  renewing,  transforming  Spirit  was  needed.  As  well  might 
the  leopard  attempt  to  change  his  spots  or  the  Ethiopian  his 
skin,  as  a nation  by  such  influences  alone  to  seek  reform. 
Neither  did  the  religious  writers  who,  till  Wesley  came,  exer- 
cised, as  we  have  seen,  the  greatest  influence  on  the  times — 
(and  illustrious  names  they  were)  Butler  and  Sherlock  and 
Hoadley  and  Warbutton  and  Horsley  and  Waterland  and 
Berkeley  and  Leslie  and  Leland  and  Doddridge  and  Watts — 
do  much  to  change  for  the  better  the  English  Church  and  peo- 


412 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


pie.  Essayists  and  poets  and  painters,  however  well  meaning 
their  efforts,  tried  it  in  vain.  “ Taste  and  culture,”  says  Juha 
Wedgwood,  “attempted  to  regenerate  society,  and  failed.” 
Pitt  and  Burke  and  George  III.,  and  the  ablest  divines  of 
the  Establishment  and  Dissent,  were  equally  poVverless.  In 
spite  of  all  their  efforts,  the  age,  as  depicted  by  Mr.  Pattison, 
was  “ one  of  decay  of  religion,  licentiousness  of  morals,  public 
corruption,  and  profaneness  of  language — an  age  destitute  of 
depth  and  earnestness,  of  light  without  love,  whose  very  merits 
were  of  the  earth,  earthy.”  What  could  cleanse  this  Augean 
accumulated  mass  of  corruption?  What  voice  could  speak  to 
these  dry  bones  and  command  the  return  of  sinews  and  skin 
and  life?  ISTo  fountain  but  the  fountain  opened  to  the  house 
of  David  for  sin  and  for  uncleanness  could  do  the  cleansing ; no 
voice  but  the  voice  of  some  Heaven-inspired  Ezekiel  could 
prophesy  and  say,  “ Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  unto  these  bones : 
Behold,  I will  cause  breath  to  enter  into  you,  and  ye  shall 
live ; ” no  breath,  no  spirit,  but  the  Breath  and  Spirit  of  the 
Almighty  could  raise  up  from  bleached  bones  “ an  exceeding 
great  army.”  What  was  needed  was  the  transforming,  regen- 
erating, sanctifying  Spirit,  and  a man  called  of  God,  as  was 
Aaron,  with  lips  toiiched  with  hallowed  fire,  as  were  Isaiah’s, 
and  with  the  word  of  God  as  a burning  fire  shut  up  in  his 
bones,  as  in  Jeremiah’s.  The  boy  rescued  from  the  burning 
rectory  at  Epworth  ; the  young  Fellow  of  Lincoln,  and  presi- 
dent of  the  “ Holy  Club  ” at  Oxford ; the  companion  of  the 
Moravians  in  the  storm-tossed  ship  on  the  Atlantic ; the  mis- 
sionary to  the  Indians  of  Georgia ; the  persecuted  rector  of 
Christ  Church  Parish  in  Savaimah;  the  man  who  felt  his 
heart  “ strangely  warmed  ” that  night  in  Aldersgate-street 
while  listening  to  the  reading  of  the  preface  to  Martin  Luther’s 
commentary  on  the  epistle  to  the  Homans,  was  divinely  called, 
commissioned,  quahfied,  and  sent  to  reform  the  Church  of 
England,  and  do  what  the  essayists  and  poets  and  painters 
and  statesmen,  and  the  learned  doctors  of  Dissent,  and  the 


Wesley  and  the  Evidence  Writees.  413 


CImrcli’s  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  the  nation’s  king  and 
queen,  were  utterly  unable  to  accomplish. 

All  that  we  have  in  this  paper  claimed  for  Mr.  Wesley  is  now 
almost  universally  allowed.  The  good,  also,  which  he  at  the 
same  time  did  among  the  poor  and  the  lower  middle  classes,  is 
admitted  to  have  been  incalculable.  But,  while  this  is  so,  it  is 
frequently  asserted  that  Methodism,  as  a Church  organism,  is 
unfitted  for  the  more  educated  and  aristocratic  circles.  A very 
recent  writer,  for  whose  opinions  we  have  very  great  respect, 
and  whose  judgment,  perhaps,  is  as  impartial  as  a clergyman’s 
of  the  Church  of  England  can  be,  has  said — as  if  it  were  the 
gravest  charge  against  Methodism — “ It  can  never  make  any 
deep  impression  on  the  cultivated  classes ; ” “ it  can,  at  best, 
be  only  the  Church  of  the  poor  and  of  the  lower  middle  class- 
es.” If  this  be  so,  Mr.  Abbey  may  be  reminded  that  the 
same  thing  was  true  of  the  gospel  in  the  times  of  our  Lord  and 
his  apostles.  As  it  was  then,  it  may  be  now,  that  “ not  many 
wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble 
are  called.”  “ Hearken,  my  beloved  brethren,  hath  not  God 
chosen  the  poor  of  this  world  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the 
kingdom  which  he  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  him  ? ” If 
Methodism,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  was  adapted  to  the  poor 
■ — to  the  well-jiigh  universally  neglected  poor — and,  as  neither 
Mr.  Abbey  nor  any  other  Avill  question,  was  adapted  to  them 
far  more  than  was  any  other  form  of  evangelicalism,  did  not 
Methodism,  in  a greater  degree  than  any  other  Church,  have  the 
divinest  sanction  that  the  gospel  gives  ? In  preaching  specially 
to  the  poor,  in  lifting  up  the  poor,  in  saving  the  poor,  did  not 
Mr.  Wesley  and  his  preachers  prove  that  they  had  drank  deeper 
into  the  spirit  of  Him  who  said,  “ The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel 
to  the  poor?”  In  an  age  when  the  gospel  itself  was  most 
fiercely  assailed  and  Christian  faith  put  to  its  severest  tests, 
Mr.  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  preachers  could  confidently 
appeal  to  their  successes  among  the  poor  as  the  most  irrefra- 


414 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


gable  evidence  of  tbe  truth  of  the  gospel.  Bj  preaching  it  to 
the  poor  and  turning  thousands  of  the  most  degraded  and 
outcast  from  sin  and  Satan  to  God,  they  gave — far  more  than 
the  evidence  writers — the  highest  proof  of  its  divinity  and  of 
their  own  commission  to  preach  it. 

But  it  is  further  said  by  the  same  writer,  “ Great,  therefore, 
as  was  its  moral  and  spiritual  jjower  among  large  classes  of  the 
people,  Methodism  was  never  able  to  rank  among  great  nation- 
al reformations.”  Before  we  give  the  answer  to  this,  we  ask, 
Is  it  true  that  Methodism  “ can  never  make  any  deep  impres- 
sion on  the  cultivated  classes ; ” that  “ it  can,  at  best,  be  only 
the  Church  of  the  poor  and  of  the  lower  middle  classes  ? ” 
Let  us  see.  The  conquests  of  Methodism  in  England  among 
“ the  cultivated  classes,”  however  circumscribed,  were  greater 
than  like  triumphs  of  the  gospel  in  the  earlier  days  of  the 
primitive  Church.  They  were  greater  in  London,  in  Bristol, 
and  in  Manchester,  than  in  Jerusalem,  in  Nazareth,  and  in 
Capernaum ; in  England,  in  Scotland,  and  in  Ireland,  than  in 
Judea,  in  Achaia,  and  in  Rome.  But,  after  all,  why  were  the 
triumphs  of  Methodism  in  England  no  greater  among  “the 
cultivated  classes  ? ” was  it  from  any  want  of  adaptation  ? How 
is  it,  then,  that  outside  of  England,  and  notably  in  the  United 
States,  Methodism  has  shown  equal  adaptation  to  all — to  rich 
and  poor,  to  the  learned  and  unlearned,  to  the  high  and  the 
lowly  ? In  the  United  States,  Methodism  is  found  in  all  the 
learned  professions,  in  the  presidencies  of  colleges,  in  the  halls 
of  the  national  Congress,  in  the  highest  departments  of  State, 
and  in  embassies  to  courts  of  the  most  exalted  of  sovereigns ; 
nor  has  it  been  unrepresented  in  the  mansion  of  the  nation’s 
Presidents.  There  is  good  reason  to  assign  for  this.  In  the 
United  States  there  is  no  State  religion  to  allure  by  its  prefer- 
ments. Methodism  in  the  new  world,  on  far  more  equal  terms 
than  in  the  old,  entered  into  the  work  of  winning  souls.  Like 
results  to  those  in  America,  and  far  more  significant,  would 
have  been  witnessed  in  England,  if  Methodism  had  had  no 


Wesley  and  the  Evidence  Weitees.  415 


powerful  State  religion,  no  Establishment,  to  hinder  its  prog- 
ress. Remove  this  barrier — give  to  Wesleyanism  an  equal 
field — and  see  what  progress  it  will  make ! It  is  idle,  there- 
fore, to  say  that  Methodism  “ was  never  able  to  rank  among 
great  national  reformations.” 

What  chance  has  Methodism,  or  any  other  Nonconformist 
body,  when  it  comes  into  competition  with  an  Establishment 
of  such  powerful  patronage,  such  high  social  position,  such 
boasted  prestige,  such  prideful  associations,  such  an  historic 
past,  such  great  revenues,  and  such  splendid  universities  ? At 
this  day,  how  many  sons  of  the  wealthier  and  more  educated 
Methodists  are  enticed  into  the  Establishment ! To  mention 
one  thing  alone,  what  a power  has  the  Establishment  through 
its  great  universities ! To  secure  their  degrees,  to  attain  their 
fellowships,  how  many  sons  of  wealthy  Wesleyans  have  been 
drawn  away  from  the  Church  of  their  Methodist  fathers  ! 
This  thing  alone  has  exercised  a powerful  influence  against 
Methodism,  and  in  the  very  line  about  which  we  are  writing. 
Just  as  Pomponius  valued  the  cognomen  which  he  received 
from  Athens  more  than  his  illustrious  descent  from  Numa 
Pompilius ; as  Marcus  Tullius  esteemed  the  praises  of  the 
Greek  poet  Ai’chias  more  than  the  honors  of  the  Roman  con- 
sulate ; and  as  the  tyrant  Nero  prized  the  wreath  which  he 
won  in  a contest  at  Olympia  above  the  imperial  purple  and 
diadem,  so,  at  this  day,  there  are  Wesleyan  preachers  who 
prefer  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  from  Oxford  or  Cam- 
hridge  to  the  highest  honorary  degrees  conferred  by  the  best 
American  colleges. 

What,  then,  has  prevented  Methodism  from  taking  “rank 
with  great  national  reformations  ? ” The  question  would  better 
not  be  pressed,  for  its  true  answer  makes  far  more  against 
the  Establishment  than  against  Methodism.  That  the  National 
Church  did  not  comprehend  Methodism  is  a graver  charge  than 
that  Methodism  did  not  absorb  the  National  Church.  It  is  a 
graver  charge  that  the  temple  and  the  synagogue  rejected  the 


416 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Messenger  of  tlie  Covenant  and  the  Fulfiller  of  their  Law,  than 
that  the  promised  Messiah  failed  to  pervade  the  Jewish  estab- 
lisliment  with  his  spirit.  It  was  a graver  charge  that  the  Porch 
and  the  Garden,  the  Academy  and  the  Lyceum,  condemned  the 
preaching  of  the  Cross  as  foolishness,  than  that  the  gospel  of 
Christ  was  powerless  to  turn  their  proud  disciples  to  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus.  The  philosophers  of  Athens  were  more  to  be 
blamed  for  rejecting  St.  Paul,  than  St.  Paul  was  for  not  con- 
verting them  to  the  worship  of  “ the  unknown  God.”  That  a 
divinely-favored  institution — such  as  Methodism  by  its  mission 
to  the  poor  and  success  among  the  outcast  has  proved  itself  to 
be — made  no  greater  impression  upon  the  Establishment  is  a 
charge  that  lies  more  heavily  at  the  door  of  the  Establishment 
than  at  the  door  of  Methodism.  That  Methodism  did  not 
reach  the  cultivated  classes  and  become  a national  reformation 
is  because  an  institution  such  as  is  the  National  Church  can 
never  be  wholly  pervaded  by  a great  revival.  At  least,  never 
this  side  of  a millennium — -nor  even  then,  for  the  very  causes 
which  hasten  a future  personal  reign  of  Christ  on  earth 
are  at  variance  with  the  whole  theory  of  a Church  under  the 
control  of  or  in  union  with  the  secular  power.  A Church 
that  admits  so  wide  a latitudinarianism  and  so  many  self- 
seekers  as  a State  Church  necessarily  must,  can  never  ajD- 
proximate  to  any  thing  like  a Church  in  which  the  multi- 
tude are  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul — where  no  man  says 
that  aught  of  the  things  which  he  possesses  is  his  own — and 
where  all  with  great  power  bear  witness  to  the  resurrection 
of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Many,  very  many,  splendid  examples  of 
piety  it  will  have ; but  it  must  also  ever  have  thousands 
who,  having  the  form,  deny  the  power  of  godliness.  This 
is  a gangrene  to  which  a National  Church  more  than  any 
other  must  be  liable.  Self-seekers  will  always  find  a wide 
place  in  Establishments ; outside  there  will  be  but  scanty  room. 

But  is  it  a fact  that  even  in  England  Methodism  has  taken 
no  hold  on  “ the  cultivated  classes,”  and  that  it  cannot  “ rank 


Wesley  and  the  Evidence  Weiteks,  417 


among  national  reformations  ? ” Directly  this  may  be  so  in 
part ; indirectly  it  is  not  so.  Indirectly,  but  none  the  less 
surely,  Methodism  has  affected  the  whole  nation.  The  National 
Church  has  been  largely  pervaded  by  its  spirit — notably  the 
evangelical  party  which,  at  times,  has  been  the  dominant  party 
of  the  Estabhshment.  The  non-conformist  Churches  have 
been  awaked  to  new  spiritual  life  by  its  teaching.  The  higher 
middle  classes,  the  learned  universities,  lordly  nobles,  high- 
born ladies,  and  even  the  court  itself,  have  all  been  more  or 
less  under  the  influence  of  Methodism.  Whether  a national 
reformation  or  not,  the  whole  nation  has  been  made  the  better 
by  it.  Its  effects  are  felt  all  over  England,  and  throughout 
all  her  dependencies.  They  are  seen  in  the  great  evangel- 
ical enterprises  which  have  made  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  the  most  signal  in  Church  history  since  apos- 
tolic times — in  its  benevolent  and  eleemosynary  institutions, 
in  its  domestic  and  foreign  missions,  in  its  Sunday-school, 
Tract,  and  Bible  Societies,  and  above  all,  in  the  enlarged 
Christian  charity  which  binds  more  closely  together  Chris- 
tians of  every  name,  of  every  land,  and  of  every  nation  and 
color,  and  which  has  made  it  possible  for  thousands  of  dif- 
ferent denominations  to  unite  on  a common  platform  and  for 
a common  purpose — the  salvation  of  souls  and  the  subjuga- 
tion of  the  world  to  the  cross  of  Christ. 

And  thus  did  John  Wesley,  by  his  direct  and  powerful 
appeals  to  the  demonstrating  and  witnessing  Spirit,  by  re- 
claiming the  outcast,  by  elevating  the  poor,  by  reviving  the 
national  and  non-conformist  Churches,  and  by  reforming  the 
nation,  do  incomparably  more  to  prove  the  divinity  of  the 
gospel  than  all  the  evidence  and  other  writers  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 


i 


WESLEY  THE  WOEEEE. 


Methodism  is  a result  of  great  labor,  a concentration 
of  mighty  religious  forces.  In  it  the  facts  of  Christianity 
are  organized,  and  its  principles  applied  to  human  life.  That 
it  was  founded  with  much  care,  both  in  respect  to  the  wants 
of  man  and  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  appears  from  the  strength 
and  simplicity  of  its  structure,  the  grace  and  vigor  of  its  de- 
velopment, the  fervor  and  activity  of  its  spirit,  and  the  charac- 
ter and  extent  of  its  influence.  While  Methodism  does  not 
rest  entirely  upon  the  woi’k  of  John  Wesley — while  there  are 
a thousand  facts  and  circumstances  clustering  about  it  and 
attaching  themselves  to  it,  like  the  confluences  of  a great 
river  system  increasing  its  volume  and  momentum — still,  in 
the  highest  degree  of  truthfulness  and  consistency,  he  must 
be  its  acknowledged  founder.  For  the  formulation  of  its 
doctrine,  it  depends  largely  upon  the  Church  of  England ; for 
much  of  its  ardent  faith  and  active  holiness,  upon  the  Mora- 
vians ; for  its  precision,  in  no  small  degree  upon  the  character  of 
the  men  who  labored  with  Mr.  W esley ; for  its  early  and  wide 
extension,  upon  great  national  and  international  movements 
— movements  which  created  new  nationalities  on  the  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other  annihilated  ; pre-existing  ones  for  the  strength 
and  free  course  of  its  principles,  upon  the  character  of  the  Wes- 
ley and  Annesley  families ; and,  finally,  for  many  of  its  most  ad- 
mirable features,  upon  the  domestic  training  of  Susanna  Wesley. 

It  does  not  detract  from  the  greatness  of  a reformer  that  the 
material  for  his  work  was  already  existing,  and  its  foundation 
already  laid.  He  who  discovers  congruities  and  affinities  in 
facts  and  phenomena  is  often  of  more  service  to  the  world  than 
he  w'ho  discovered  the  facts  but  was  unable  to  bring  them 


AVesley  the  Worker. 


419 


into  practical  use.  Mr.  Weslej  was  truly  a great  reformer, 
though  he  found  helps  in  the  reformation  which  he  wrought. 
The  evidences  that  he  was  destined  to  become  a thorough  and 
effectual  laborer  in  the  work  of  reform  appeared  in  his  early 
life.  He  seized  every  advantage  which  was  offered  to  him, 
turning  it  to  service  that  he  might  bless  men  and  glorify  God, 
and  despising  nothing  that  would  make  him  wiser  or  better, 
ever  seeking  light  from  his  parents,  brothers,  and  friends,  and 
trying  all  by  the  word  of  God. 

The  labors  of  Mr.  Wesley  may  be  classified  as  follows ; — 

First.  His  work  of  self -improvement. 

Secondly.  His  work  for  others. 

In  subduing  the  passions  and  appetites  of  the  body,  bringing 
all  under  subjection  to  the  will  of  God,  Mr.  AFesley’s  conduct 
reminds  us  of  that  of  St.  Paul.  The  rigid  discipline  under 
which  he  held  fiis  physical  powers  could  have  been  maintained 
only  by  one  whose  heart  was  fixed  more  upon  spiritual  good 
than  upon  fieshly  enjoyments.  He  allowed  his  body  as  much 
sleep  as  was  requisite,  and  that  quantity  and  quality  of  food 
and  raiment  that  were  necessary,  but  no  more.  As  for  rest,  he 
said  he  found  that  in  a change  of  labor.  In  early  life  he  writes : 
“ I am  full  of  business,  but  have  found  time  to  attend  to  my 
writing  ...  by  rising  an  hour  earlier  in  the  morning  and 
going  into  company  an  hour  later  in  the  evening.”  In  another 
instance,  finding  himself  wakeful  at  nights,  he  believed  it  to 
be  the  result  of  giving  too  many  hours  to  the  bed  : so  he  took 
one  hour  from  the  night,  adding  it  to  the  day,  experimenting 
for  three  or  four  days,  until  he  had  abridged  his  nights  by  as 
many  hours ; and  found  that  point  of  separation  between  the 
night  and  day,  which  left  on  the  one  side  the  length  of  time  he 
required  for  sleep,  and  on  the  other  that  during  which  he  was 
able  to  work.  Recognizing  the  fact  that  “ bodily  exercise 
profiteth  little,”  yet,  for  the  sake  of  that  little,  he  so  exercised 
himself  that  in  his  body  and  spirit  he  might  “glorify  God, 
whether  in  eating  or  in  drinking.” 


420 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


His  mental  discipline  was  as  severe  and  as  systematic  as  his 
physical.  His  acquaintance  with  the  laws  of  mind  enabled 
him  to  marshal  the  faculties  in  perfect  order,  and  to  have  all 
that  was  within  him  to  praise  the  Lord.  A course  of  study 
prepared  by  him  for  his  own  guidance,  before  he  was  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  shows  to  what  various  subjects  he  applied 
his  mind,  and  how  he  confined  it  to  order  and  regularity. 
“ Mondays  and  Tuesdays  were  devoted  to  the  Greek  and  Ro- 
man classics,  historians,  and  poets.  Wednesdays,  to  logic  and 
ethics.  Thursdays,  to  Hebrew  and  Arabic.  Fridays,  to  meta- 
physics and  natural  philosophy.  Saturdays,  to  oratory  and 
poetry,  chiefly  composing.  Sundays,  to  divinity.” 

With  him  the  cultivation  of  the  mind  was  subordinate  to 
nothing  excepting  purity  of  the  heart,  and  that  in  order  to  have 

all  his  powers  consecrated  to  God.  Had  he  lacked  this  rigid 

» 

mental  discipline  and  large  intellectual  culture,  he  could  not 
have  established  Methodism.  The  clarion  call  that  was  to  sum- 
mon the  sleeping  formalist  to  action,  and  arouse  the  far-otf 
and  neglected  thousands,  calling  all  to  the  way  of  faith  and 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  could  allow  no  uncertain  sound  in 
those  times  of  dreamy  forgetfulness,  open  infidelity,  and  mis- 
guided religionists : it  sounded  the  notes  of  reason  as  well  as 
of  excitement ; of  philosophy  as  well  as  of  love.  It  was  not  a 
time  for  superficiality  or  fanaticism  to  pass  for  religion.  Ev- 
ery thing  that  showed  signs  of  making  innovations  upon  the 
established  religion  had  to  go  into  the  crucible ; hence  Method- 
ism was  compelled  to  be  open  for  the  consideration  and  criticism 
of  all  men.  It  could  not  be  placed  under  a bushel.  Every 
point  of  doctrine  and  every  tenet  must  be  seen  and  read  of  all 
men.  Who,  of  all  the  characters  of  his  age — nay,  of  any  age 
since  that  of  the  apostles — was  better  prepared  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  great  work  than  he,  concerning  whom  the 
illustrious  Dr.  Johnson  said:  “I  could  talk  all  day  and  all 
night  too  with  ” him  ? — The  man  profuse  in  his  readings,  thor- 
ough in  his  studies,  prudent  in  his  conduct,  orderly  in  his 


Wesley  the  Worker. 


421 


habits ; possessing  zeal  without  rasliness,  erudition  without 
affectation,  and  holiness  without  hypocrisy?  Mr.  Wesley’s 
accomplishments  would  have  given  him  a high  place  in  any 
sphere  of  life  which  he  might  have  chosen,  military,  literary, 
or  political ; but  with  all  his  ability  he  laid  himself  upon  the 
altar  of  our  holy  religion  to  be  what  God  willed. 

As  has  been  intimated  above,  the  cultivation  which  he  gave 
both  body  and  mind  had  especial  reference  to  the  welfare  of  the 
soul.  With  him  every  thing  was  connected  with  religion,  and 
religion  with  every  thing.  The  state  of  his  soul  was  always 
a subject  of  interest  and  inquiry.  Self-examination  was  a duty 
of  every  day.  It  is  to  be  doubted  if  any  one  ever  subjected 
the  heart  to  a more  regular,  searching,  and  candid  examination. 
The  deceitful  heart  does  not  readily  turn  inward  to  look  at 
itself.  Self-examination  is  one  of  its  severest  tasks ; but  in 
Mr.  Wesley’s  case  this  seemed  easy.  Finding  his  religious  state 
below  that  of  a scripturally  perfect  man,  he  strove  by  various 
exercises  to  raise  it  to  the  desired  standard,  but  found  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  the  law  inadequate  to  the  demands 
of  the  heart.  He  then  consulted  all  the  good  persons  with 
whom  he  met,  and  the  works  of  good  men,  relative  to  the 
question  of  finding  perfect  peace. 

His  correspondence  with  his  parents  on  this  subject  shows 
how  truly  anxious  he  was.  Hothing  less  than  the  fullness  of 
God  could  satisfy  him.  His  soul  fainted,  crying  out  for  the 
living  God.  His  heart  was  open  to  both  man  and  God  for 
correction  and  improvement  in  the  highest  sense.  It  is  com- 
mon for  men  to  pass  through  life  with  that  character  which  the 
world  gives  them,  so  far  as  this  is  flattering,  but  he  was  willing 
to  be  known  as  imperfect  that  he  might  become  perfect. 
When  the  peace  and  comfort  of  the  Holy  Ghost  had  filled  his 
heart,  his  zeal  was  quickened  and  his  energy  doubled.  He  then 
entered  fully  upon  the  work  of  leading  the  world  to  the  Lamb 
of  God,  that  taketh  away  its  sin.  “ When  thou  art  converted, 
strengthen  thy  bretliren,”  and  If  ye  know  these  things,  happy 


422 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


are  ye  if  ye  do  them,”  were  texts  well  understood  by  him,  and 
highly  exemphfied  in  his  life. 

He  worked  for  the  conversion  of  others  with  the  same  inces- 
sant application,  the  same  strong  faith,  the  same  frankness  and 
earnestness,  with  which  he  labored  to  become  himself  like 
Christ.  He  considered  no  labor  too  great  to  be  undertaken  to 
relieve  suffering  humanity  or  glorify  a gracious  God.  “ Dili- 
gent in  business,  fervent  in  Spirit,  serving  the  Lord,”  his  labors 
were  as  diversified  as  they  were  useful : caring  for  the  poor 
and  neglected,  alleviating  their  sulferings,  and  satisfying  their 
wants ; instructing  the  ignorant,  visiting  those  who  were  in 
prison,  lifting  up  the  head  of  the  dejected ; administering  to 
the  wants  of  the  sick ; cheering  the  dying  with  exhortations, 
prayers,  and  songs,  as  they  crossed  the  flood.  One  of  his  biog- 
raphers says  of  him : “ In  mercy  to  the  bodies  of  men,  his 
friend,  Mr.  Howard,  was  the  only  person  I ever  knew  who 
could  be  compared  to  him.” 

With  reference  to  his  benevolence,  it  has  been  said  that  lie 
gave  away  every  thing  which  he  received  excepting  so  much 
as  was  necessary  to  meet  his  obligations,  resolving  to  be  his 
own  executor. 

Besides  these  blessings  conferred  immediately  upon  the  bod- 
ies of  men,  he  did  a great  amount  of  writing.  His  writings 
consist  of  both  prose  and  poetry,  and  embrace  several  of  the 
varieties  of  composition : letters,  journals,  compilations,  com- 
mentaries, sermons,  etc.  Few  men  have  associated  so  much 
writing  with  an  equal  amount  of  other  labor.  All  of  his  writ- 
ings possess  a high  degree  of  character ; every-where  demon- 
strating the  principle  of  candor,  order,  and  a design  to  glorify 
God.  All  manifest  that  spirit  of  care  and  appreciation  of 
time  which  caused  their  author  to  remark,  in  reply  to  the  re- 
quest, “Do  not  be  in  a hurry,”  “A  hurry  ! Ho,  I have  no 
time  to  be  in  a hurry.” 

His  great  reasoning  powers,  patience,  and  comprehension, 
rendered  Ifim  eminently  fit  to  conduct  that  line  of  defense 


Wesley  the  Worker. 


423 


always  so  necessary  in  religious  reformations,  and  upon  tlie  pru- 
dent management  of  wliich  so  much  depends.  The  high 
ground  which  Methodism  had  taken  made  it  necessary  that  its 
controversies  should  be  as  purb  as  its  character.  Few  men 
could  have  entered  into  its  extensive  controversies  and  con- 
ducted them  with  less  selfishness  or  more  godliness ; with  a 
more  candid  acknowledgment  of  the  merits  of  the  arguments 
of  its  opponents,  or  with  a more  cordial  invitation  to  have  the 
defects  of  its  own  advocates  pointed  out.  His  arguments  were 
clear,  pungent,  and  forcible  ; and  are  of  great  service  to-day  in 
the  discussion  of  subjects  to  which  they  apj)ly. 

His  sermons  contain  a spiritual  richness  which  show  them  to 
be  the  composition  of  one  whose  heart  was  well  informed  con- 
cerning the  gospel,  and  thoroughly  prepared  for  the  work  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.  In  all  of  his  sermons  there  are  that  depth  of 
thoughtfulness,  clearness  of  statement,  fullness  of  experience, 
and  acquaintance  with  the  great  subjects  of  human  want  and 
divine  grace  which  we  naturally  expect  in  the  words  of  the 
messenger  of  God  to  man. 

In  preaching  he  was  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season.  All 
humanity  had  a claim  upon  him.  In  the  streets  or  fields,  in 
the  wilderness  or  upon  the  ocean,  wherever  he  could  obtain 
hearers,  he  preached.  These  hearers  might  be  the  leaders  of 
the  very  mob  that  was  incensed  against  him,  and  determined 
upon  either  stopping  his  mouth  or  killing  him  ; they  might  be 
the  wild  red  men,  or  the  enslaved  black  men  of  America,  or 
the  nobility  of  England  and  the  governors  in  America.  He 
became  all  things  unto  all  men.  He  says^  “Wherever  I see 
one  or  a thousand  men  ranning  into  hell,  be  it  in  England, 
Ireland,  or  France — yea,  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  or  America 
— I will  stop  them  if  I can;  as  a minister  of  Christ,  I will 
beseech  them  in  his  name  to  turn  back  and  be  reconciled  to 
God.”  Preaching  was  one  of  his  regular  duties,  common  to 
every  day.  Like  St.  Paul,  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  he  was  ready. 

To  the  world  his  preaching  was  as  words  of  authority,  in 
27 


424 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


demonstration  of  tlie  Spirit  and  of  power,  cutting  like  a two- 
edged  sword,  convicting  and  converting  sinners  to  Ckrist. 
Thus  in  Great  Britain  and  America  he  laid  the  foundations  of 
Methodism  deep  in  the  hearts  of  men.  In  the  fifty  years  of 
his  itinerancy  he  is  said  to  have  preached  more  than  forty  thou- 
sand times,  traveling  more  than  four  thousand  miles  annually. 

As  the  messenger  of  God  he  called  to  the  thousands  to  repent 
and  believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  they  obeyed  the  call, 
and  thus  gathered  around  him  as  their  leader  and  guide.  Ex- 
* eluded  from  other  bodies  of  Christians,  they  turned  for 
strength  to  him  who  had  been  the  means  of  enlightening  them. 
This  placed  upon  him  new  and  weighty  responsibilities — the 
organizing  of  these  thousands,  scattered  over  the  British  Isles 
and  America.  He  had  to  discipline  as  well  as  indoctrinate 
them ; to  become  their  counselor  and  defender ; to  represent 
them  and  plead  for  them  in  the  presence  of  the  dignitaries  of 
both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  courts ; to  bear  all  the  blame  for 
exciting  the  people  to  irregular  meetings,  to  meet  all  the  oppo- 
sition which  misguided  Christians  could  instigate,  the  tongue 
of  calumny  invent,  or  an  infuriated  mob  execute. 

He  was  charged,  on  the  one  hand,  with  being  prompted  to 
his  great  work  by  a love  of  money ; and  on  the  other,  with 
being  controlled  by  the  appetency  for  power.  Only  the  few 
who  were  very  closely  associated  with  him,  and  who  partook 
of  his  spirit,  understood  that  the  almost  unlimited  powei’ 
which  he  exercised  over  the  Societies  was  not  commen- 
surate with  the  equally  unlimited  duties  which  he  had  to 
perform  in  order  fo  preserve  their  proper  equilibrium,  and 
present  them  blameless  before  the  throne  of  God.  Had  he 
faltered,  the  work  of  his  life  would  have  been  paralyzed. 
Had  he  been  less  temperate  than  zealous,  less  prudent  than 
powerful,  he  might  have  led  his  adherents  and  associates  out 
to  suffer  the  embarrassments  of  the  votaries  of  Baal.  Had 
his  self-consciousness  been  greater  than  his  godliness,  he  might 
have  held  them  to  himself,  but  at  the  same  time  have  drawu 


Wesley  the  Workee. 


425 


them  from  Christ.  O,  Holj  Ghost ! what  canst  thou  not  do 
for  man  to  enable  him  to  bear  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day ! 
to  endure  hardness  as  a good  soldier ! Thou  implantedst  in 
Wesley  the  spirit  of  work,  making  him  hke  Him  who  “must 
he  about  his  Father’s  business.”  Thou  who  preparedst  him 
for  the  field,  and  the  field  for  him,  what  wilt  Thou  not  do  for 
those  who  will  not  be  “ weary  in  well-doing  ! ” 

When  we  cast  the  eye  over  the  field,  the  wide  field  now 
occupied  and  worked  by  five  millions  of  living  Methodists — 
when  we  think  of  the  multiplied  millions  who  have  fallen 
asleep — when  we  begin  to  think  of  the  incalculable  service 
which  Methodism  has  rendered  in  exciting  the  moving  hosts  of 
the  Lord,  under  a hundred  names,  to  hohness  and  to  God,  we 
can  but  exclaim.  Surely  the  little  one  has  become  a thousand  ! 

When  we  consider  the  firmness  and  depth  which  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  as  taught  by  Wesley,  has  in  the  world,  and  when 
we  behold  the  glory  of  the  possibilities  of  this  Spirit,  we 
thank  God  for  the  great,  indefatigable  Wesley,  the  woekee. 
What  he  accomplished  for  man  and  God  can  be  counted  only 
in  eternity.  It  is  more  glorious  than  the  work  of  the  con- 
.queror,  more  effectual  than  that  of  the  statesman,  more  beau- 
tiful than  that  of  the  sculptor,  more  enduring  than  that 
of  the  author.  Tea,  it  is  of  a more  exalted  character  than  all 
of  these  combined;  it  is  connected  -^ith  the  good  work  of 
faith  in  all  ages,  establishing  upon  earth  that  mountain  of 
hohness  which  is  to  elevate  the  entire  race  up  to  the  very 
throne  of  God  itself. 

In  that  hfe  preserved  beyond  the  threescore  and  ten — 
to  do  such  grand  and  glorious  work,  and  to  continue  that 
work  with  vigorous  mind  and  strong  hand  to  the  very  end  of 
life  — there  are  to  be  found  many  beautiful  examples  and 
useful  lessons.  That  orderly  hfe,  looking  right  onward,  im- 
pressing every  one  with  its  characteristics  of  exactness,  tem- 
perance, and  faith,  has  given  to  Methodism  a similar  spirit. 
Without  this  order  Wesley  could  not  have  influenced  the 


426 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


world  nor  glorified  God  to  the  extent  that  lie  lias  done.  Had 
this  element  not  been  large  in  his  constitution,  there  would 
not  obtain  that  general  uniformity  and  those  common  qualities 
in  the  divided  Methodism  of  to-day.  By  a stricter  attention 
to  the  holy  and  systematic  manner  of  life  and  work  of  its  truly 
great  founder,  Methodism  would  be  brought  into  a closer  and 
higher  unity,  and  thus  effect  a thousandfold  more  good  than  it 
is  doing. 

May  these  branches  bring  their  work  into  a warmer  asso- 
ciation, seize  the  favoring  signs  of  the  times,  and,  with  Wes- 
ley’s zeal  and  faith,  rush  to  battle  to  aid  in  conquering  the 
world  to  our  Lord  and  his  Christ  forever ! 


WESLEY  AND  ELETCHEE. 


IF  John  Wesley  was  the  great  leader  and  organizer,  Charles 
Wesley  the  great  poet,  and  George  Whitefield  the  great 
preacher,  of  Methodism,  the  highest  type  of  saintliness  which 
it  produced  was  unquestionably  John  Fletcher.  FTever,  per- 
haps, since  the  rise  of  Christianity,  has  the  mind  which  was 
in  Christ  Jesus  been  more  faithfully  copied  than  it  was  in 
the  Ticar  of  Madeley.  To  say  that  he  was  a good  Christian 
is  saying  too  little.  He  was  more  than  Christian — he  was 
Chi'istlike.  It  is  said  that  Yoltaire,  when  challenged  to  pro- 
duce a character  as  perfect  as  that  of  Jesus  Christ,  at  once 
mentioned  Fletcher  of  Madeley ; and  if  the  comparison  be- 
tween the  God-man  and  any  child  of  Adam  were  in  any  case 
admissible,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  one  with  whom  it 
could  be  instituted  with  less  appearance  of  blasphemy  than 
this  excellent  man.  Fletcher  was  a Swiss  by  birth  and  educa- 
tion, and  to  the  last  he  showed  traces  of  his  foreign  origin. 
But  England  can  claim  the  credit  of  having  formed  his 
spiritual  character.  Soon  after  his  settlement  in  England  as 
tutor  to  the  sons  of  Mr.  Hill,  of  Terne  Hall,  he  became  at- 
tracted by  the  Methodist  movement,  which  had  then  (1752) 
become  a force  in  the  country,  and  in  1753  he  was  admitted 
into  holy  orders.  The  account  of  his  appointment  to  the 
living  of  Madeley  presents  a very  unusual  phenomenon  in 
the  eighteenth  century.  His  patron,  Mr.  Hill,  offered  him 
the  living  of  Dunham,  “ where  the  population  was  small,  the 
income  good,  and  the  village  situated  in  the  midst  of  a fine 
sporting  country.”  These  were  no  recommendations  in  the 
eyes  of  Fletcher,  and  he  declined  the  living  on  the  ground 
that  the  income  was  too  large  and  the  population  too  small. 


428  TnE  Wesley  Memoetal  Volume. 

Madeley  had  the  advantage  of  having  only  half  the  income 
and  double  the  population  of  Dunham.  On  being  asked 
whether  he  would  accept  Madeley  if  the  vicar  of  that  j)arish 
would  consent  to  exchange  it  for  Dunham,  Fletcher  gladly  em- 
braced the  offer.  As  the  vicar  of  Madeley  had  naturally  no 
objection  to  so  advantageous  an  exchange,  Fletcher  was  insti- 
tuted to  the  cure  of  the  large  Shropshire  village,  in  which  he 
spent  a quarter  of  a century.  There  is  no  need  to  record  his 
apostolical  labors  in  this  humble  sphere  of  duty.  Madeley 
was  a.  rough  parish,  full  of  colliers ; but  there  was  also  a 
sprinkling  of  resident  gentry.  Like  his  friend  John  Wesley, 
Fletcher  found  more  fruits  of  his  work  among  the  former  than 
among  the  latter.  But  none,  whether  rich  or  poor,  could 
resist  the  attractions  of  this  saintly  man.  In  1Y72  he  ad- 
dressed “An  Appeal  to  Matter  of  Fact  and  Common  Sense” 
to  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  parish  of  Madeley,  the 
dedication  of  which  is  so  characteristic  that  it  is  worth  quoting 
in  full : “ Gentlemen,”  writes  the  vicar,  “ you  are  no  less 
entitled  to  my  private  labors  than  the  inferior  class  of  my 
parishioners.  As  you  do  not  choose  to  partake  with  them  of 
my  evening  instructions,  I take  the  liberty  to  present  you  with 
some  of  my  morning  meditations.  May  these  well-meant 
efforts  of  my  pen  be  more  acceptable  to  you  than  those  of  my 
tongue ! And  may  you  carefully  read  in  your  closets  what 
you  have,  perhaps,  inattentively  heard  in  the  church ! I ap- 
peal to  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  that  I had  rather  impart  truth 
than  receive  tithes.  You  kindly  bestow  the  latter  upon  me ; 
grant  me  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  you  receive  favorably  the 
former  from,  gentlemen,  your  affectionate  minister  and  obedi- 
ent servant,  J.  Fletcher.” 

When  Lady  Huntingdon  founded  her  college  for  the  train- 
ing of  ministers,  at  Trevecca,  she  invited  Fletcher  to  take  a 
sort  of  general  superintendence  over  it.  This  Fletcher  under- 
took without  fee  or  reward  ; not,  of  course,  with  the  intention 
of  residing  there,  for  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  bad  cus- 


TVeslet  and  Fletcher. 


429 


tom  of  non-residence,  wLieli  was  only  too  common  in  his  day. 
He  was  simply  to  visit  the  college  as  frequently  as  he  could  ; 
“ and,”  writes  Dr.  Benson,  the  first  head-master,  “ he  was 
received  as  an  angel  of  God.”  “ It  is  not  possible,”  he  adds, 
“ for  me  to  describe  the  veneration  in  which  we  all  held  him. 
Like  Elijah  in  the  schools  of  the  prophets,  he  was  revered,  he 
was  loved,  he  was  almost  adored.  My  heart  kindles  while  I 
write.  Here  it  was  that  1 saw,  shall  I say  an  angel  in  human 
flesh  ? I should  not  far  exceed  the  truth  if  I said  so  ” — and 
much  more  to  the  same  effect.  It  was  the  same  wherever 
Fletcher  went ; the  impression  he  made  was  extraordinary ; 
language  seems  to  fail  those  who  tried  to  describe  it.  “I 
went,”  said  one  who  visited  him  in  an  illness,  (he  was  always 
dehcate,)  ‘‘  to  see  a man  that  had  one  foot  in  the  grave,  but  I 
found  a man  that  had  one  foot  in  heaven.”  “ Sir,”  said  Mr. 
Yenn,  to  one  who  asked  him  his  opinion  of  Fletcher,  “he  was 
a luminary — a luminary  did  I say  ? — he  was  a sun ! I have 
known  all  the  great  men  for  these  fifty  years,  but  none  like 
him.”  John  Mesley  was  of  the  same  opinion  ; in  Fletcher  he 
saw  realized  in  the  highest  degree  all  that  he  meant  by 
“Christian  perfection.”  For  sometime  he  hesitated  to  write 
a description  of  this  great  man,  “ judging  that  only  an  Apelles 
was  proper  to  paint  an  Alexander ; ” but  at  length  he  pub- 
lished his  well-known  sermon  on  the  significant  text,  “ Mark 
the  perfect  man,”  etc.,  (Psalm  xxxvii,  37,)  which  he  con- 
cluded with  this  striking  testimony  to  the  unequaled  charac- 
ter of  his  friend : “ I was  intimately  acquainted  with  him  for 
above  thirty  years ; I conversed  with  him  morning,  noon,  and 
night  without  the  least  reserve,  during  a journey  of  many 
hundred  miles ; and  in  all  that  time  I never  heard  him  speak 
one  improper  word,  nor  saw  him  do  an  improper  action.  To 
conclude : many  exemplary  men  have  I known,  holy  in  heart 
and  life,  within  fourscore  years,  but  one  equal  to  him  I have 
not  known — one  so  inwardly  and  outwardly  devoted  to  God. 
So  unblamable  a character  in  every  respect  I have  not  found 


430 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


either  in  Europe  or  America;  and  I scarce  expect  to  find 
another  such  on  this  side  of  eternity.”  Fletcher,  on  his  part, 
was  one  of  the  few  parish  clergymen  who  to  the  end  thor- 
oughly appreciated  John  Wesley.  He  thought  it  “shameful 
that  no  clergyman  should  join  Wesley  to  keep  in  the  Church 
the  work  God  had  enabled  him  to  carry  on  therein  ; ” and  he 
was  half  inclined  to  join  him  as  his  deacon,  “not,”  he  adds, 
with  genuine  modesty,  “ with  any  view  of  presiding  over  the 
Methodists  after  you,  but  to  ease  you  a little  in  your  old  age, 
and  to  be  in  the  way  of  receiving,  j^erhaps  doing,  more  good.” 
Wesley  was  very  anxious  that  Fletcher  shoiild  be  his  successor, 
and  proposed  it  to  him  in  a characteristic  letter ; but  Fletcher 
declined  the  ofiice,  and  had  he  accepted,  the  plan  could  never 
have  been  carried  out,  for  the  hale  old  man  survived  his 
younger  friend  several  years.  The  last  few  years  of  Fletcher’s 
life  were  cheered  by  the  companionship  of  one  to  whom  no 
higher  praise  can  be  awarded  than  to  say  that  she  was  worthy 
of  being  Fletcher’s  wife.  Hext  to  Susanna  Wesley  herself, 
Mrs.  Fletcher  stands  pre-eminent  among  the  heroines  of  Meth- 
odism. In  1785  the  saint  entered  into  his  everlasting  rest, 
dying  in  harness  at  his  beloved  Madeley.  His  death-bed  scene 
is  too  sacred  to  be  transferred  to  these  pages. 

Indeed,  there  is  something  almost  unearthly  about  the  whole 
of  this  man’s  career.  He  is  an  object,  in  some  respects,  rather 
for  admiration  than  for  imitation.  He  could  do  and  say 
things  which  other  men  could  not  without  some  sort  of  un- 

O 

reality.  John  Wesley,  with  his  usual  good  sense,  warns  his 
readers  of  this  in  reference  to  one  particular  habit,  viz. : “ the 
faculty  of  raising  useful  observations  from  the  most  trifling 
incidents.”  “ In  him,”  he  says,  “ it  partly  resulted  from 
nature,  and  was  partly  a supernatural  gift.  But  what  was 
becoming  and  graceful  in  Mr.  Fletcher  would  be  disgustful 
almost  in  any  other.”  An  ordinary  Christian,  for  examj)le, 
who,  when  he  was  halving  his  likeness  taken,  should  exhort  “ the 
limner,  and  aU  that  were  in  the  room,  not  only  to  get  the  out- 


I 


"Wesley  and  Fletchee. 


431 


Lines  drawn,  but  the  colo:;’ings  also  of  the  image  of  Jesus  on 
tbeir  hearts  ” ; who,  “ when  ordered  to  be  let  blood,”  should, 
“ while  the  blood  was  running  into  the  cup,  take  occasion  to 
expatiate  on  the  precious  blood-shedding  of  the  Lamb  of  God 
who  should  tell  his  cook  “ to  stir  up  the  fire  of  divine  love  in 
her  soul,”  and  entreat  his  housemaid  “ to  sweep  every  corner 
in  her  heart ; ” who,  when  he  received  a present  of  a new 
coat,  should,  in  thanking  the  donor,  draw  a minute  and  elabo- 
rate contrast  between  the  broadcloth  and  the  robe  of  Christ’s 
righteoxisness — would  run  the  risk  of  making  not  only  him- 
seK,  but  the  sacred  subjects  which  he  desired  to  recommend, 
ridiculous.  Unfortunately  there  were  not  a few,  both  in 
Fletcher’s  day  and  subsequently,  who  did  fall  into  this  error ; 
and,  with  the  very  best  intentions,  dragged  the  most  solemn 
traths  through  the  dirt.  Fletcher,  besides  being  so  heavenly- 
minded  that  what  would  seem  forced  and  strained  in  others 
seemed  perfectly  natural  in  him,  was  also  a man  of  cultivated 
understanding,  and,  with  occasional  exceptions,  of  refined  and 
dehcate  taste ; but  in  this  matter  he  was  a dangerous  model  to 
follow.  Who  but  Fletcher,  for  instance,  could,  without  savor- 
ing of  irreverence  or  even  blasphemy,  when  offering  some 
ordinary  refreshment  to  his  friends,  have  accompanied  it  with 
the  words:  “The  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,”  etc.,  and 
“ the  blood  of  our  Lord,”  etc.  ? But,  extraordinary  as  was 
the  spiritual-mindedness  of  this  man  of  God,  he  could,  without 
an  effort,  descend  to  earthly  matters  on  occasion.  One  of  the 
most  beautiful  traits  of  his  character  was  illustrated  on  one  of 
these  occasions.  He  had  done  the  government  good  service 
by  writing  on  the  American  Rebellion,  and  Lord  Dartmouth 
was  commissioned  to  ask  him  whether  any  preferment  would 
be  acceptable  to  him.  “ I want  nothing,”  answered  the  simple- 
hearted  Christian,  “but  more  grace.”  His  love  of  children 
was  another  touching  characteristic  of  Fletcher.  “ The  birds 
of  my  fine  wood,”  he  wrote  to  a friend,  “ have  almost  done 
singing;  but  I have  met  with  a parcel  of  children  whose 


432  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volttme, 

hearts  seem  turned  toward  singing  the  praises  of  God,  and  we 
sing  every  day  from  four  to  five.  Help  iis  by  your  prayers.” 
And  again : “ The  day  I preached,  I met  with  some  children 
in  my  wood,  walking  or  gathering  strawbemes.  I spoke  to 
them  about  our  Father,  our  common  Father;  we  felt  a touch 
of  brotherly  atfection.  They  said  they  would  sing  to  their 
Father  as  well  as,  the  birds;  and  followed  me,  attempting  to 
make  such  melody  as  you  know  is  commonly  made  in  these 
parts  [Switzerland].  I outrode  them,  but  some  of  them  had 
the  patience  to  follow  me  home,  and  said  they  would  speak  with 
me ; but  the  people  of  the  house  stopped  them,  saying  I would 
not  be  troubled  with  children.  They  cried,  and  said  they 
were  sure  I would  not  say  so,  for  I was  their  good  brother. 
The  next  day,  when  I heard  it,  I inquired  after  them,  and 
invited  them  to  come  to  me ; which  they  have  done  every  day 
since.  I make  them  little  hymns  which  they  sing.”  At  an- 
other time,  when  he  had  a considerable  number  of  children 
before  him,  in  a place  in  his  parish,  as  he  was  persuading 
them  to  mind  what  they  were  about,  and  to  remember  the  text 
which  he  was  going  to  mention,  just  then  a robin  fiew  into 
the  house,  and  their  eyes  were  presently  turned  after  him. 
“How,”  said  he,  “I  see  you  can  attend  to  that  robin.  Well, 
I will  take  that  robin  for  my  text.”  He  then  gave  them  a 
useful  lecture  on  the  harmlessness  of  that  little  creature,  and 
the  tender  care  of  its  Creator. 

What  has  thus  far  been  said  of  Mr.  Fletcher  was  said  by 
me  in  the  “ English  Church  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  ” — the 
very  recent  work  of  Mr.  Abbey  and  myself.  To  that  sketch 
I embrace  the  opportunity,  which  the  editor  of  the  “Wesley 
Memorial  Yolume”  has  kindly  given  me,  of  adding  a few 
words.  And  this  I do,  because,  if  one  were  merely  to  read 
the  sketch  detached  from  its  context,  he  might  naturally  but 
erroneously  assume  that  Mr.  Fletcher,  who  is  described  as  the 
highest  type  of  saintliness,  is  held  by  me  to  have  been  a finer 
character  than  John  Wesley,  who  is  spoken  of  as  the  great 


Wesley  and  Fletchee. 


433 


leader  and  organizer.  Those  who  have  read  the  whole  chapter 
in  the  “ English  Chnrch  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,”  will  know 
that  this  is  not  the  case.  But,  as  others  may  not,  for  that 
cause,  and  also  because  this  article  is  headed  “Wesley  and 
Fletcher,”  a few  additional  remarks  seem  necessary  on  the 
relationship  between  these  two  remarkable  men. 

God  uses  very  different  instniments  to  effect  his  purposes ; 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  a greater  contrast,  in  many 
respects,  than  that  which  existed  between  John  Wesley  and 
John  Fletcher.  Of  course  all  minor  differences  sink  into  in- 
significance when  compared  with  the  one  great  bond  of  union 
which  attached  them  to  each  other.  The  love  of  God,  and  of 
man  for  God’s  sake,  was  the  grand  motive  power  of  both.  To 
do  all  the  good  he  could  in  his  generation  was  equally  the  object 
of  both.  They  were  like  two  concentric  circles,  each  revolv- 
ing in  his  own  orbit,  but  both  around  the  same  center — and 
that  center  was  Christ.  It  may  be  interesting  to  trace  the 
working  of  these  two  very  different  types  of  Christian  charac- 
ter, engaged — and  most  harmoniously  engaged — in  one  common 
task. 

Some  of  the  American  readers  of  these  lines  may  have 
crossed  the  broad  Atlantic  and  visited  the  beautiful  land  which 
had  the  honor  of  giving  birth  to  John  de  la  Flechere.  They 
may  have  sailed  on  the  placid  and  lovely  lake  of  Leman,  which 
was  so  familiar  to  him.  And  if  so,  the  contrast  between  the 
rough  ocean  and  the  calm  lake  must  have  occurred  vividly  to 
their  minds.  This  contrast  is  no  inapt  illustration  of  the  differ- 
ence between  Wesley  and  Fletcher.  As  one  traces  the  course 
of  John  Wesley,  he  is  reminded  of  that  ocean — its  magnitude, 
its  invigorating  power,  its  occasional  roughness,  its  aptitude  to 
disagree  at  times  with  those  who  cross  its  surface.  As  one 
studies  the  character  of  Fletcher,  he  is  reminded  of  the  peace- 
ful lake,  unruffled  by  a breeze,  presenting  the  most  charming 
scenery  on  all  sides,  hut  now  and  then  exposed  to  a storm, 
which  seems  strangely  out  of  keeping  with  its  general  charac- 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  VolujME. 


ter.*  Some  will  prefer  the  ocean,  others  the  lake ; so,  some 
will  prefer  Wesley,  others  Fletcher.  But  as  no  one  with  an 
eye  for  the  beautiful  can  help  admiring  the  lake ; lo,  no  one 
with  an  eye  for  the  morally  and  spiritually  beautiful,  can  help 
admiring  Fletcher.  From  all  liis  Christian  contemporaries 
who  knew  that  saintly  man,  there  arose  one  universal  chorus 
of  praise.  But  many  will  find  fault  with  the  ocean ; and  many 
of  his  contemporaries,  whom  Wesley  would  have  been — nay! 
was — the  first  to  own  as  true  children  of  God,f  found  fault  with 
the  great  reformer.  Fie  was  sometimes,  as  his  letters  and  re- 
ported sayings  still  show,  rather  rough ; but,  just  as  almost 
every  body  is  the  better  for  a sea  voyage,  so  almost  every 
one  was  the  better  for  intercourse  with  John  Wesley;  just  as 
the  sea  breeze  is  always  pure  and  bracing,  though  occasionally 
rude  withal,  so  it  was  with  him.  lie  may  have  been  brought 
into  collision  with  some,  and  rutfled  them  a little ; but  his 
general  infiuence  was  as  healthful  and  bracing  to  the  spiritual 
man  as  the  sea-breeze  is  to  the  natural  man.  If  the  lake  is 
more  beautiful,  the  sea  is  the  grander ; and  perhaps  even  the 
relative  magnitude  of  the  two  pieces  of  water  represents  not 
altogether  unfairly  the  comparative  greatness  of  Wesley  and 
Fletcher.  If  it  is  harder  to  pick  a fiaw  in  Fletcher’s  character 
than  in  Wesley’s,  yet  the  latter  was  decidedly  the  more  inter- 
esting, the  more  suggestive,  the  more  fruitful  of  good  to  the 
community  at  large.  Fletcher  could  never  have  originated 
the  work  that  Wesley  did;  he  was  not  the  born  iniler  of  men 
that  W esley  was.  W esley  called  Fletcher  an  Alexander ; but 
he  himself  was  the  true  spiritual  Alexander.  Take  him  for 
all  in  all,  none  of  the  excellent  men  who  worked  with  him,  or 
under  him — not  even  Fletcher  himself — approached  his  stature. 

* Fletcher  and  the  Calvinistic  Controversy. 

\ Witness  his  noble  testimony  to  his  enemy  Bishop  Gibson : “ that  good  man 
who  is  now,  I hope,  with  God : ” also,  his  repeated  and  almost  enthusiastic  encom- 
iums on  William  Law,  etc. 


WESLEY  AND  DLAEKE. 


So  long  as  Methodistic  memory  and  affection  shall  endure, 
so  long  shall  the  httle  Irish  town  of  Moybeg  be  remem- 
bered as  the  bh'thplace  of  Adam  Clarke.  The  father  of  the 
eminent  commentator  was  a “ man  standing  five  feet  seven, 
with  good  shoulders,  an  excellent  leg,  a fine  hand,  every  way 
well  proportioned,  and  extremely  active.”  He  is  also  repre- 
sented to  have  been  a superior  classical  scholar,  whose  repute 
was  so  high  that  there  were  few  priests,  clergymen,  surgeons, 
or  lawyers  resident  in  the  north  of  Ireland  who  had  not 
been  educated  by  liim.  While  the  father  of  Dr.  Clarke  was  of 
English  origin,  his  mother  was  a descendant  of  the  Scotch 
M’Leans,  of  Mull,  in  the  Hebrides,  a hardy  race,  and  remark- 
able for  muscular  strength.  Her  learned  son,  who  ever  cher- 
ished a tender  veneration  for  his  mother,  described  her  as 
“ sensible,  but  not  beautiful ; as  something  above  the  average 
height,  erect  in  person,  graceful  in  her  movements,  and  one  who 
feared  God.”  At  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  these  honored 
parents  the  mother  was  a Presbyterian,  and  the  father  was  an 
Episcopalian ; but  these  denominational  preferences  never  in- 
terfered with  the  charm  and  harmony  of  their  household. 
Thrice  happy  was  the  son  blessed  with  such  a parentage  ! Like 
the  mother  of  Martin  Luther,  Mrs.  Clarke  could  not  recollect 
with  precision  the  year  of  Adam’s  birth,  but  to  the  best  of  her 
recollection  the  event  occurred  in  the  year  1760. 

There  was  nothing  in  Dr.  Clarke’s  youth  that  gave  promise 
of  his  future  greatness.  In  this  he  reminds  us  of  Luther, 
working  with  his  father  in  the  mines  of  Mansfield ; of  Bloom- 
field, making  shoes  in  a garret ; of  Herschel,  serving  as  a.  British 
soldier ; of  Davy,  working  as  a wood-carver ; and  of  Whitefield, 


436 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


as  a waiter  in  liis  mother’s  inn.  His  mental  powers  developed 
slowly.  He  found  it  difficult  to  master  the  alphabet.  Harsh 
words  and  sore  chastisements  failed  to  elicit  his  genius.  His 
Irish  schoolmaster  called  him  a “ grievous  dunce,”  and  a class- 
^ mate  ridiculed  him  as  a “ stupid  ass.”  But  this  cruel  mockery 
aroused  him  as  from  a lethargy ; the  light  of  a better  day 
dawned  upon  him,  and  all  were  astonished  and  filled  with  admi- 
ration at  the  marvelous  change.  His  memory  became  capa- 
cious and  capable  of  embracing  all  learning.  His  understand- 
ing resembled  the  tent  in  story  : “ Fold  it,  and  it  was  a toy  in 
the  hand  of  a lady ; spread  it,  and  the  armies  of  the  Sultan 
reposed  beneath  its  ample  shade.”  He  ascribed  this  sudden 
change  to  a “ singular  Providence  which  gave  a strong  charac- 
teristic coloring  to  his  suhsecpient  life.” 

From  an  unpromising  intellectual  beginning  he  rapidly 
rose  to  scholastic  eminence,  and  his  reputation  spread  wherever 
the  English  language  was  spoken.  He  was  one  of  the  few 
“ encyclopedic  scholars  ” of  his  age.  He  was  more  or  less 
familiar  with  almost  every  branch  of  learning.  By  the  most 
commendable  industry  and  perseverance  he  became  skillful  in 
tlie  Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  Samaritan,  Chaldee,  Syriac,  Arabic, 
Persian,  and  Coptic  lang-uages,  and  also  most  of  the  modern 
languages  of  Western  Europe.  He  studied  with  care  and 
profit  nearly  every  department  of  literature  and  of  physical 
science.  His  knowledge  was  at  once  multifarious  and,  in  that 
age,  surj^risingly  accurate.  His  great  abilities  and  vast  ac- 
quirements w^ere  honorably  recognized  by  membership  in 
the  London,  Asiatic,  Geological,  and  other  learned  societies  of 
his  day. 

Although  he  is  best  known  to  the  Church  as  a commentator, 
yet  he  was  the  sincere  Christian,  the  faithful  preacher,  and  suc- 
cessful revivalist.  His  conversion  was  thorough,  clear,  and 
pronounced.  One  of  Wesley’s  itinerants  had  penetrated  to  the 
north  of  Ireland,  and  among  his  hearers  was  Adam  Clarke,  then 
a lad  of  seventeen.  Under  the  personal  appeals  of  Thomas 


Wesley  and  Claeke. 


437 


Barker  he  was  led  to  Christ.  His  distress  of  mind  was  intense. 
He  seemed  to  pray  in  vain.  His  agonies  increased,  and  were 
indescribable.  As  the  hours  passed  his  darkness  deepened ; 
hope  departed,  des]3air  took  possession  of  his  soul.  But  in  his 
extremity  he  offered  one  more  prayer  to  Christ ; his  grief  sub- 
sided, his  soul  became  calm — all  condemnation  was  gone.  He 
was  converted ; all  was  sunshine ; he  was  filled  with  ineffable 

joy- 

His  call  to  the  ministry  was  almost  simultaneous  with  his 
conversion.  He  longed  to  tell  what  great  things  the  Lord  had 
done  for  his  soul.  Traveling  on  foot  from  village  to  village,  he 
addressed  his  rustic  neighbors  with  “ words  that  burn.”  The 
zeal  and  success  of  the  youthful  exhorter  attracted  the  notice 
of  the  circuit  preacher  of  Londonderry,  who  wrote  Mr.  Wesley 
about  the  promising  young  Methodist  preacher.  The  vener- 
able Wesley,  with  his  rare  sagacity,  invited  the  Irish  lad  to 
attend  the  Kingswood  school.  When  these  two  met  Wesley 
inquired,  “ Do  you  wish  to  devote  yourself  entirely  to  the 
work  of  God  ? ” Clarke  replied,  “ Sir,  I wish  to  do  and  be 
whatever  God  pleases.”  W esley  laid  his  hands  on  the  young 
man’s  head,  prayed  a few  moments  over  him,  and  sent  him 
to  Bradford  Circuit.  Dr.  Clarke  was  wont  to  call  this  his 
“ ordination,”  and  never  wished  any  other. 

As  a preacher  and  revivalist  his  popularity  became  at  once 
universal.  His  congregations  were  immense,  and  he  held  the 
people  speU-bound  by  the  power  of  divine  truth.  He  had  the 
wisdom  by  which  he  turned  many  to  righteousness,  and  was 
not  content  without  visible  fruits  of  his  ministry.  When  he 
preached,  the  vast  auditories  were  moved  to  tears,  and  many 
prayed  aloud  for  mercy.  The  colliers  of  Kingswood,  the  mer- 
chants of  Liverpool,  and  the  literati  of  London  melted  under 
his  preaching,  and  responded  to  his  call  to  repentance.  With 
him  preaching  was  objective.  He  was  an  evangelist  in  the 
apostolic  sense.  His  mission  was  to  disciple  the  people.  He 
expected  fruit.  He  spake  because  he  felt ; he  felt  because  he 


438 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


was  endued  with  power  from  on  high.  He  believed  in  super- 
natural aid  and  in  supernatural  results.  Gifted  with  such  a 
faith,  no  marvel  that  sinners  were  converted  to  Christ.  “ Ac- 
cording to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you  ” was  the  promise  on  which 
he  relied  when  he  preached  the  word  of  the  Lord. 

Such,  briefly,  was  the  man  — saint,  scholar,  and  preacher  — 
whom  God  had  chosen  to  be  an  eminent  coadjutor  of  Wes- 
ley. In  the  history  of  all  great  revivals  God  has  employed 
a variety  of  talents.  In  the  college  of  apostles  we  discover 
every  shade  of  temperament  and  every  variety  of  talent.  In 
the  great  Germanic  Reformation  Luther  and  Melanchthon 
were  strange  opposites,  yet,  happily  for  the  Church,  the  sup- 
plement of  each  other.  So,  in  the  wondrous  revival  of  the 
last  century,  the  same  fact  is  observable  in  Wesley  and  his 
co-laborers.  Howell  Harris,  of  surpassing  eloquence  and 
power,  in  Wales;  John  Bredin,  eminent  for  his  sense  and 
piety,  in  Ireland;  John  Fletcher,  seraphic  in  spirit,  analytical 
in  mind,  mighty  in  controversy,  and  Whitefield,  that  prince  of 
pulpit  orators,  in  England — each,  in  his  sphere,  greatly  aided 
the  Methodist  movement.  And  another  was  to  be  added  to 
Methodism’s  band  of  illustrious  workers,  who,  by  his  devotion, 
learning,  and  pen,  was  to  fill  a large  sphere  and  leave  an  en- 
duiing  impress  upon  his  own  age  and  the  ages  to  follow. 

What  Whitefield  was  to  Wesley  in  pulpit  eloquence,  Clarke 
was  to  Wesley  in  learning  and  authorship.  They  were  unlike 
in  their  mental  structure,  literary  tastes,  and  in  the  character 
of  their  productions.  Wesley  was  logical;  Clarke  was  philo- 
sophical. The  former  was  precise  in  his  theological  defini- 
tions ; the  latter  excelled  in  his  generalizations.  In  direct 
logic,  in  accuracy  of  style,  in  transparent  clearness,  Wesley  had 
no  superior.  While  yet  at  Oxford  he  was  esteemed  a com- 
petent critic  in  the  classic  languages,  and  when  but  twenty- 
three  he  was  Greek  lecturer,  and  moderator  of  the  classes  in 
the  university.  His  skill  in  logic  was  extraordinary,  and  ena- 
bled him  in  his  great  controversies  to  touch  the  very  point 


Wesley  and  Claeke. 


439 


wiiere  some  fallacy  lay,  'wliicli  he  uncovered  to  the  confusion 
of  his  opponents.  To  whatever  department  of  science  and  lit- 
erature he  tmmed  his  attention  he  was  commendably  accurate 
and  profound.  He  wrote  on  divinity,  poetry,  music,  history, 
and  on  natural,  moral,  metaphysical,  and  political  philosophy, 
with  equal  ability.  Like  Luther,  he  knew  the  importance  of 
the  press,  which  he  kept  teeming  with  his  publications.  His 
works,  including  abridgments  and  translations,  numbered 
about  two  hundred  volumes.  Familiar  with  the  classics,  his 
writings  are  adorned  with  many  of  their  finest  passages ; 
acquainted  with  many  of  the  modern  languages,  he  became 
master  of  their  noblest  thoughts ; and,  ever  clear  and  strong  as 
a writer,  he  seemed  at  home  on  almost  every  subject  of  learn- 
ing and  general  literature.  As  scholar  and  author,  Clarke 
was  not  less  accurate,  but  broader  in  his  range  of  knowledge, 
and  in  Oriental  scholarship  he  had  the  pre-eminence.  In  sacred 
hterature  his  knowledge  was  extraordinary,  and  his  ability  to 
communicate  apparently  inexhaustible.  Wesley  wrote  for  the 
common  people.  He  could  write  a tract.  Clarke  wrote  for 
the  learned,  and  in  folios.  Wesley  excelled  as  an  ecclesiastical 
legislator  and  administrator.  He  was  great  as  an  organizer, 
and  had  “ a genius  for  government  not  inferior  to  that  of 
Eichelieu.”  He  could  comj)rehend  and  manage  at  once  the 
outlines  and  the  details  of  far-reaching  plans.  His  Methodism 
fixes  itself  to  the  smallest  locality  with  the  utmost  tenacity, 
and  in  its  provisions  reaches  the  ends  of  the  earth,  ever  main- 
taining its  unity  of  spirit  and  discipline.  As  one  born  to  com- 
mand, he  had  the  rare  power  of  self-control  and  calmness  of 
spirit,  while  he  kept  all  around  him  in  a healthy  state  of  ex- 
citement and  earnest  work.  Clarke’s  was  another  part  in  the 
great  religious  movement.  As  a defender  and  expositor  of 
the  oracles,  of  God  he  holds,  notwithstanding  his  acknowledged 
defects,  a most  distinguished  position  among  the  illustrious 
defenders  and  expositors  of  the  word  of  God  in  the  eight- 
eenth century. 

28 


440 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Dr.  Clarke,  as  we  believe,  was,  jpar  excellence,  the  coinmeii- 
tator  of  the  Wesleyau  movement.  As  a commentator  he  is  best 
known  to  the  Church  and  the  world.  In  this  is  the  immortal- 
ity of  his  name  among  men.  His  pre|)aration  for  that  great 
work  was  something  wonderful.  He  who  would  comment 
with  greatest  profit  to  others  on  the  book  of  books  must  himself 
be  the  master  of  all  books.  What  other  book  known  to  man  is 
so  comprehensive  ? It  is  the  history  of  histories,  the  biography 
of  biographies,  the  philosophy  of  philosophies.  It  contains  all 
that  is  fundamental  and  beneficent  in  jurisprudence ; all  that  is 
essential  and  beautiful  in  poetry ; all  that  is  eternal  and  salutary 
in  ethics.  It  is  the  only  authentic  record  extant  of  the  first 
twenty -five  centuries  of  the  human  dispensation.  It  was 
written  for  universal  man,  whether  his  home  is  on  the  mount- 
ains or  in  the  valleys ; whether  he  is  a dweller  at  the  poles  or 
on  the  equator ; whether  he  is  a nomad  of  the  desert  or  a 
mariner  on  the  stormy  deep.  The  domestic,  social,  and  na- 
tional relations  of  life  are  therein  defined  and  sanctioned. 
Therein  are  enforced  the  duties  of  the  individual — to  him- 
self, to  society,  to  God.  Its  chief  import  is  with  the  deep,  the 
indispensable,  the  everlasting  religious  concerns  of  man.  It 
stands  alone,  sublime  in  its  isolation,  as  the  revelation  of  God 
to  man,  and  is  the  only  inspired  biography  of  the  Son  of  God, 
the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

To  be  the  commentator  of  such  a book  requires  a mind  of 
the  highest  order ; learning  varied,  accurate,  and  profound  ; 
and  a devout  spirit,  ever  living  in  communion  with  the  All- 
Wise  and  the  All-Holy  One.  The  jjrejjaration  which  Dr. 
Clarke  made  for  his  life-work  is  something  wonderful,  and 
indicative  of  his  apj^reciation  of  the  task  he  essayed.  He 
had  made  himself  familiar  with  the  great  authors  of  antiquity, 
from  Homer  and  Herodotus  down  to  the  Heo-Platonists  of 
Alexandria  and  the  Byzantine  annalists.  By  patient  applica- 
tion he  became  a master  of  Oriental  learning.  In  his  study  of 
the  Hebrew  he  mastered  Bayley’s  Grammar,  read  with  zest 


] 


Wesley  aled  Claeke, 


441 


Kennicott’s  Hebrew  Bible,  and  examined  witb  care  Leigh’s 
“ Critica  Sacra,”  wherein  he  found  the  hteral  sense  of  every 
Greek  and  Hebrew  word  used  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
Hew,  with  definitions  enriched  with  theological  and  philosoph- 
ical notes,  drawn  from  the  best  grammarians  and  critics. 
Grade’s  Septuagint  became  his  delight,  which  threw  much 
light  on  the  Hebrew,  and  which  he  read  to  the  end  of  the 
Psalms,  noting  down  the  most  important  differences  in  the 
margin  of  a quarto  Bible  in  three  volumes.  In  reading  Wal- 
ton’s Polyglot  he  felt  the  importance  of  a thorough  knowledge 
of  the  Oriental  Versions  described  in  the  Prolegomena,  and 
immediately  commenced  the  Samaritan  text  of  the  Pentateuch. 
He  next  appHed  himself  to  the  Syriac,  and  was  soon  able  to 
consult  the  sacred  text  in  that  version.  To  study  the  book  of 
Daniel  with  greater  profit  he  turned  to  the  Chaldee,  and  wrote 
out  a grammar  to  facilitate  his  work.  While  residing  in 
Bristol,  on  his  second  appointment  to  that  city,  in  1798,  he 
applied  himself  to  learn  Persian,  using  Sir  William  Jones’ 
Grammar,  and  reading  the  gospels  in  the  Persian  version. 
To  understand  more  accmately  the  Arabisms  with  which  the 
book  of  Job  abounds,  he  entered  upon  the  study  of  Arabic, 
which,  as  a cognate  of  the  Hebrew,  ranks  among  the  more 
strictly  bibhcal  tongues,  and  became,  in  his  day,  one  of  the 
most  competent  Arabic  scholars  in  England.  And  to  en- 
large his  acquaintance  wfith  Oriental  literature  he  acquired 
a knowledge  of  the  Ethiopic  and  Coptic,  and  especially  of 
the  Sanskrit,  which  opened  to  hhn  the  treasures  of  Hindu 
learning. 

But  other  branches  of  knowledge  demanded  his  attention 
to  qualify  him  for  his  great  work.  To  gratify  his  philosoph- 
ical tastes,  he  read  with  his  usual  ardor,  Derham’s  “Astro- 
Theology,”  Bay’s  “Wisdom  of  God  in  Creation,”  and  Cham- 
bers’ “ Encyclopaedia,”  which  masterly  works  disclosed  to  his 
ever-expanding  mind  the  glory  of  God  in  the  heavens  and 
his  wonders  in  the  earth.  Intent  on  beholding  the  Creator  at 


442 


•The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


work,  lie  sought  him  in  the  chemistry  of  tlie  universe  and  in 
the  intricacies  of  comparative  anatomy. 

And  we  may  form  some  idea  of  his  vast  research  and  volu- 
minous reading,  by  the  size  and  richness  of  his  private  library, 
which  amounted  to  ten  thousand  printed  volumes,  and  a large 
collection  of  ancient  and  Oriental  manuscripts  of  immense 
value.* 

In  the  year  1826  he  completed  his  “ Commentary  on  the 
Holy  Scriptures,”  a monument  to  his  learning,  industry,  and 
piety.  It  was  the  work  of  forty  years  of  patient  application, 
and  accomplished  amid  the  faithful  discharge  of  many  public 
duties.  Having  written  the  last  line  of  his  long  task  on  his 
knees,  he  cleared  his  large  study  table  of  its  pile  of  antique 
folios,  leaving  but  the  Bible  upon  it,  arranged  his  library,  and 
again  bowing  at  the  foot  of  his  well-worn  library  steps,  gave 
thanks  to  God  that  he  had  been  enabled  to  contribute  to  the 
explanation  and  vindication  of  divine  truth,  and  that  the  toils 
of  years  were  ended,  f 

Of  the  healthful  influence  of  that  great  Avork  upon  the 
Church,  it  is  not  easy  to  speak  in  terms  of  adequate  apprecia- 
tion. It  has  spread  its  banquet  of  wisdom  and  love  in  untold 
Christian  homes  on  two  continents,  and  is  found  to-day  in  the 
libraries  of  ministers  and  laymen  of  all  denominations.  It  has 
its  defects  ; but  its  excellences  are  many.  In  some  things  it  has 
been  excelled  by  those  of  more  recent  date,  yet  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  it  was  “ begun,  continued,  and  ended  by  one  man, 
and  that  man  engaged  in  the  zealous  and  faithful  discharge  of 
so  many  public  duties,  instead  of  complaining  that  here  and 
there  it  has  a blemish,  our  wonder  is  rather  excited  that  he 
should  have  brought  it  so  far  as  he  did  toward  perfection.” 

Eminent  as  they  Avere  in  scholarship,  it  is  no  marvel  that 
Wesley  and  Clarke  commanded  the  attention  and  respect  of 
the  English  nobihty.  The  great  religious  movement  wherein 
they  were  engaged  was  designed  by  Providence  to  affect  the 

* Etheridge’s  “Life  of  Clarke.”  \ Stevens’  “History  of  Methodism.” 


w ESLET  AND  ClAEKE. 


443 


opinions,  the  characters,  and  destinies  of  all  classes  of  men. 
TtTiile  it  is  an  inexpressible  joy  to  Methodists,  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic,  that  Methodism  has  touched  and  elevated  the  poor- 
est of  the  poor,  and  has  also  blessed  with  a new  life  the  great 
middle  classes  of  society,  it  is  also  true,  it  has  enrolled  among 
its  most  ardent  and  faithful  adherents  many  who  are  well  known 
in  the  higher  walks  of  life.  This  was  so  in  the  beginning. 
The  statesmen  of  his  day  found  it  convenient  to  secure  the 
services  of  Mr.  "Wesley  in  times  of  great  national  emergencies, 
and  not  a few  of  England’s  nobility  heard  from  his  lips  the 
word  of  the  Lord  gladly : and  now,  after  the  lapse  of  a cent- 
ury, his  memory  is  perpetuated  and  his  virtues  are  commem- 
orated by  a monument  in  W estminster  Abbey.  It  was,  how- 
ever, reserved  for  Dr.  Clarke  to  be  recognized  by  a large  num- 
ber of  the  English  nobility,  and  by  them  to  be  courted  and 
admired.  He  was  invited  to  attend  their  sessions  and  their 
learned  societies ; to  mingle  as  a guest  in  their  social  gather- 
ings ; and  he  in  turn  received  them  as  his  guests  in  his  own 
quiet  home  at  Haydon  Hall.  He  was  honored  with  titles  of 
which  any  man  might  be  justly  proud.  Learned  societies 
thought  it  an  honor  to  number  him  among  their  members,  and 
the  British  Government  sought  his  services  as  an  Oriental 

O 

scholar.  And  thus,  while  Wesley  touched  the  lowest  of  the 
low,  Clarke  touched  the  highest  of  the  high. 

By  their  learning,  piety,  and  zeal,  the  Wesleys  and  Clarke 
foreshadowed  the  mission  of  Methodism,  and  to-day  all  Chris- 
tendom is  singing  their  hymns  or  reading  their  commentaries. 
Whether  from  ignorance  of  historical  facts  or  from  secta- 
rian prejudice,  or  from  both,  certain  writers  have  created 
the  impression  that  the  founders  of  Methodism  were  indif- 
ferent to  learning ; that  they  were  zealous,  but  not  wise ; 
emotional,  but  not  intelligent ; pioirs,  but  not  scholarly.  Sister 
Churches  have  graciously  condescended  to  speak  of  Meth- 
odists as  the  pioneers  of  Christian  civilization,  well  adapted 
to  the  rusticity  of  the  frontier  and  to  the  inferior  minds  of 


444 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


rural  districts ; while  they  have  not  hesitated  to  claim  for 
themselves  a mission  to  the  cultured  and  the  affluent.  The 
history,  however,  of  the  Wesleyan  movement,  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years,  is  in  proof  that  the  worthy  successors  of  the 
"W^esleys  and  Clarke  were  no  less  at  home  in  palaces  than  in 
cottages ; in  halls  of  learning  than  in  cabins  of  illiteracy ; an 
that  in  every  station  in  life  they  have  made  many  converts 
Christ.  “ Their  line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  ana 
their  words  to  the  end  of  the  world.”  They  have  neither  de- 
spised the  poor  nor  neglected  the  rich.  They  have  gone  to 
universal  man,  created  in  the  image  of  God  and  redeemed  by 
the  blood  of  his  Son.  While  the  chief  concern  of  Methodism 
has  been  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  free,  full,  and  present,  it  has 
done  more  for  the  intellectual,  social,  spiritual,  political,  and 
religious  advancement  of  man  than  any  other  branch  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  has  been  a salutary  power  in  the 
political  history  of  England  and  America,  and  the  present 
prosperity  of  those  two  greatest  of  Christian  nations  is  largely 
due  to  the  intelligent  piety  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  saved 
through  its  instrumentality.  It  has  checked  Romanism  in  its 
march  of  conquest ; it  has  successfully  met  in  argument  the 
advocates  of  infidel  science ; and  it  has  so  modified  Calvinism 
that  the  distinctive  doctrines  of  Wesleyan  Arminianism  now 
form  the  popular  theology  of  the  day.  Its  measures  of  effi- 
ciency and  success  have  been  quietly  adopted  by  other  denom- 
inations whose  prosj)erity  has  been  commensurate  with  their 
acceptance  of  the  spirit  and  teachings  of  John  Wesley  and 
Adam  Clarke.  

To  Dr.  Newman’s  paper  on  “Wesley  and  Clarke”  we  add  the  notes  which 
follow. — EnrroR. 

“An  itinerant  preacher,  without  a spot  on  the  fair  escutcheon  of  his  character; 
one  of  the  most  extensively  learned  scholars  of  the  age ; a voluminous  author ; 
the  friend  of  philosophers  and  princes ; and  a man  intensely  beloved  by  nearly  aU 
who  knew  him.” — Luke  Tyerman:  “ Life  and  Times  of  John  Wesley.” 

. . . “ The  most  eminent  scholar,  and  one  of  the  most  effective  laborers,  of 
Methodism.” — Dr.  Abel  Stevens  : “ History  of  Methodism.” 

. . . “ Since  the  time  of  Adam  Clarke  they  [the  Wesleyans]  have  not  had 


Wesley  and  Clarke. 


445 


among  them  a single  scholar  who  has  enjoyed  a European  reputation.” — Mr. 
Buckle  ; “ History  of  Civilization  in  Europe.” 

“ Clarke  became  as  remarkable,  after  he  had  entered  the  Methodist  ministry  in 
1782,  for  his  exemplary  discharge  of  pulpit  and  pa.storal  duties  as  for  the  attain- 
ment of  vast  stores  of  learning.” — Dr.  Stoughton  : “ Religion  in  England  under 
Queen  Anne  and  the  Georges.” 

“ Dr.  Adam  Clarke’s  ‘ Commentary  on  the  Holy  Scriptures  ’ is,  on  the  whole,  one 
of  the  noblest  works  of  the  class  in  the  entire  domain  of  sacred  literature. — Dr. 
Etheridge:  “Life  of  Adam  Clarke,  LL.D.” 

“ It  is  undoubtedly  the  most  critical  and  literary,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
spiritual  and  practical,  of  any  work  of  the  kind  that  was  ever  published  in  any 
living  tongue.” — Samuel  Dunn:  “Life  of  Adam  Clarke,  LL.D.,  F.A.S.” 

“In  point  of  erudition  and  acuteness  it  [Scott’s  Commentary]  is  not  equal  to 
that  of  Adam  Clarke.  ...  In  solid  learning  he  [John  Wesley]  was,  perhaps,  not 
equal  to  his  friend  and  disciple  Adam  Clarke.” — Mr.  Overton  : “ The  English 
Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.” 

. . . “There  have  arisen  out  of  this  body  [the  Wesleyans]  some  of  the  most 
able  and  distinguished  individuals  that  ever  graced  and  ornamented  any  society 
whatever.  I may  name  one  for  all,  the  late  Dr.  Adam  Clarke.” — Sir  Launcelot 
Shadwell,  Yiee-Chancellor,  etc.:  from  his  decision  on  the  “Validity  of  Wesley’s 
Deed  of  Declaration.” 

“ The  objects,  besides  many  others,  which  seem  to  have  occupied  the  greatest 
and  most  valuable  part  of  your  active  life,  cannot  fail  of  being  most  interesting  to 
the  historian,  the  theologist,  the  legislator,  and  the  philosopher.  To  these  details 
I shall  apply  myself,  and,  as  my  heart  and  mind  improve,  I shall  feel  my  debt  of 
gratitude  toward  you  daily  increasing — an  obligation  I shall  ever  be  proud  to  own.” 
— His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  in  a letter  to  Adam  Clarke. 

“ Ear  from  not  acknowledging  our  worthy  friend  [Adam  Clarke]  as  a genuine 
member  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  Church  of  the  first-born,  whose  names  are 
written  in  heaven,  ...  we  will  take  him  in  our  arms,  we  will  bear  him  in  our 
bosoms,  and  carry  him  into  the  presence  of  his  God  and  our  God.” — Wilberforce. 

“ Seeing  you  are  such  a man,  I wish  you  were  altogether  our  own.” — Dr.  Bloom- 
nELD,  Bishop  of  London,  to  Adam  Clarke. 


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WESLEY’S  LIBEEAIITY  AND  CATHOLICITY. 

WITH  AJ^  INTRODUCTION  BY  THE  EDITOR. 


The  benevolence  of  John  Wesley  was  equaled  by  bis  benefi- 
cence. Like  bis  Master  be  went  about  doing  good,  both 
to  tbe  souls  and  bodies  of  men.  Benevolence  in  bim  was  ever 
active  and  practical ; suffering  humanity  always  found  in  bim 
a willing  and  ready  friend.  Tbe  sick  and  poor,  the  widow  and 
orphan,  tbe  outcast  and  stranger,  tbe  African  slave  and  Indian 
savage,  tbe  condemned  felons  of  Hewgate,  the  imprisoned 
debtors  of  tbe  Marsbalsea,  tbe  ignorant  miners  of  Cornwall,  tbe 
rude  colliers  of  Kingswood,  and  tbe  French  prisoners  taken  cap- 
tive in  war,  were  alike  tbe  recipients  of  bis  boundless  liberality, 
and  tbe  objects  of  his  ten  derest  sympathy.  From  tbe  begin- 
ning of  bis  course  at  Oxford  to  tbe  close  of  bis  long  life  in 
City  Hoad,  be  was  unceasingly  employed  in  devising  schemes 
and  raising  means  for  tbe  relief  of  tbe  suffering  at  home  and 
abroad. 

It  was  for  this  he  adopted  as  bis  motto  : “ Gain  all  you  can ; 
save  all  you  can ; and  give  all  you  can.”  Ho  one  ever  practiced 
more  fully  this  self-imposed  and  self-denying  rule  than  John 
Wesley.  That  he  might  keep  it,  be  was  never  idle;  be  was 
never  unemployed,  or  trifiingly  employed.  He  gained  all  be 
could,  “ working  with  bis  hands  tbe  thing  which  is  good.”  By 
voice  and  pen  be  gained  thousands  of  pounds,  every  penny  of 
which,  except  the  scantiest  allowance  for  bis  own  absolute  neces- 
sities, be  scrupulously  devoted  to  charity.  He  also  sawed  all  be 
could.  That  be  might  save  to  tbe  utmost,  his  expenses  were 
reduced  to  tbe  lowest  possible  figure.  And  be  gawe  all  be 
could.  Ho  man,  all  things  considered,  ever  gave  more  to 


Wesley’s  Liberality  and  Catholicity.  453 


charity  than  the  founder  of  Methodism.  But  besides  the 
sums  gained  by  his  literary  labors,  much  larger  were  the  sums 
raised  with  voice  and  pen,  by  his  direct  appeals  to  the  liber- 
ality of  others.  Untold,  likevdse,  are  the  millions  which,  since 
his  day  till  the  present,  have  been  given  to  charitable  objects 
bv  the  direct  or  indirect  influence  of  his  example.  No  such 
liberahty  as  his  was  known  to  the  age  in  which  he  lived; 
nothing  like  it  had  been  seen  since  the  time  of  the  apostohc 
Churches  of  Macedonia.  John  Wesley  was  not  only  the  reviv- 
alist of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Churches,  but  of  the  enlarged 
hberality  which,  since  his  day,  has  distinguished  multitudes 
within,  and  many  without,  the  Church.  The  countless  millions 
which  have  been  contributed  in  both  hemispheres  during  the 
last  century  and  a half  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  to 
missions,  to  education,  and  to  eleemosynary  institutions  of  every 
kind,  received  their  most  powerful  impetus,  outside  of  the  grace 
and  example  of  Christ,  from  W esley’s  liberality.  It  has  stimu- 
lated not  only  the  rich  to  give  of  their  abundance,  but  the  poor 
to  save  out  of  their  poverty  something  for  those  who  are  poorer 
than  themselves.  The  apostolic  age  of  liberal  giving  was 
restored  by  Wesley’s  spirit,  and  it  was  kept  alive  by  Wesley’s 
example.  Wesley’s  benevolence  flourishes  again  in  the  gifts  of 
Peabody;  Wesley’s  faith  shines  anew  in  the  institutions  of 
Muller.  “ The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fullness  thereof,” 
was  Wesley’s  sole  plea  and  sole  reliance  whenever  he  needed 
the  means  to  carry  out  the  schemes  which  his  liberal  soul  de- 
vised ; nor  did  he  ever  make  that  plea,  or  rely  upon  it,  in  vain. 

The  journal  of  Wesley  abundantly  testifies  to  his  labors,  and 
their  success,  in  behalf  of  the  unfortunate.  Charitable  institu- 
tions, whether  founded  by  himself,  by  his  preachers,  or  by 
others,  and  the  prison-houses  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
were  habitually  visited  in  person  wherever  he  went  in  his 
apostolic  and  itinerant  journeyings  through  the  three  kingdoms ; 
and  many  were  the  charity  sermons  which  he  preached  on  their 
account.  How  he  visits  his  orphan  house  and  his  infirmary 


454  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

at  ITewcastle;  now  liis  and  Whitefield’s  colliers’  school  at 
Kingswood,  and  Miss  Bosanquet’s  oiqjhanage  at  Lytenstone; 
now  his  dispensary,  poor-school,  and  widows’  house  at  the 
Foundery;  now  the  poor-house  in  Glasgow,  and  the  Gordon 
hospital  in  Aberdeen ; and  now  the  widows’  house  at  Dublin, 
the  Charter  School  at  Ballinrobe,  and  the  House  of  Industry 
at  Cork.  How  he  writes  to  Adam  Clarke  and  now  to  John 
Gardner,  approving  their  plans  for  the  formation  of  Strangers’ 
Friend  Societies,  and  pledging  to  Gardner’s  three  pence  a week, 
and  a guinea  in  advance.  How  he  jireaches  a charity  sermon 
for  the  Sunday-school  at  Wearmouth,  and  now  for  the  Indian 
schools  in  America.  How  he  visits  the  French  prisoners  sent 
from  Carrickfergus  to  Diiblin,  surjjrising  them  “ at  hearing  as 
good  French  spoke  in  Dublin  as  they  could  have  heard  in  Paris, 
and  still  more  at  being  exhorted  to  heart-religion,  to  the  ‘ faith 
that  worketh  by  love.’  ” How  he  takes  up  a collection  for  the 
French  prisoners  at  Knowle,  preaching  from  the  text,  “ Thou 
shalt  not  oppress  a stranger ; for  ye  know  the  heart  of  a stranger, 
seeing  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt ; ” and  now  he 
visits  them  in  prison,  and,  “ in  hopes  of  provoking  others  to 
jealousy,”  again  takes  up  a collection  to  relieve  their  wretched 
condition.  How  he  proclaims  the  gospel  of  free  grace  to  the 
hardened  felons  of  Hewgate,  the  clink  of  whose  chains^and 
every  other  sound — is  hushed  the  moment  he  announces  his 
text : “ There  is  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth, 
more  than  over  ninety  and  nine  just  persons,  which  need  no 
repentance.”  And  now,  “ in  their  cells  under  ground,”  or  “ in 
their  garrets,”  he  visits  the  sick  and  “ half-starved  ” prisoners 
of  the  Marshalsea,  and  asks,  “ If  you  saw  these  things  with  your 
own  eyes,  could  you  lay  out  money  in  ornaments  or  super- 
fluities ? ” 

Many  are  the  charitable  institutions  to  which  Methodism  has 
given  birth  in  ahnost  all  parts  of  the  world.  Among  these  we 
here  mention  one,  not  only  because  it  illustrates  the  liberahty 
and  catholicity  of  the  founder  of  Methodism,  but  because  it 


Wesley’s  Libeeality  akd  Catholicity,  ■ 455 


enables  ns  to  print  an  address  by  Dean  Stanley,  in  which  these 
characteristics  of  John  Wesley  are  candidly  affirmed  and 
strong-ly  emphasized.  The  institution  to  which  we  refer  is  the 
Children’s  Home,  in  Bonner  Hoad,  London.  For  the  account 
of  this  noble  charity,  which  follows,  I am  indebted  to  Mr.  G. 
Stevens,  of  the  “ Eeligious  Tract  Society,”  in  Paternoster 
Eow.  From  his  excellent  article,  “ Orphan  and  Outcast,”  in 
the  “Songs  and  Stories  of  the  Children’s  Home,”  1877,  we 
quote  as  follows  : — 

The  ChildreB’s  Home  is  the  name  borne  by  a group  of  buildings  in 
the  East  of  London,  in  Bonner  Road,  not  far  from  Victoria  Park,  a popu- 
lous district  too  rarely  explored  by  the  wealthy  citizens  of  the  West. 
It  is  both  orphanage  and  refuge,  but  is  the  center  of  a much  larger  work, 
having  some  peculiarities  which  deserve  attention.  Like  many  other 
institutions,  it  owes  its  origin  to  one  man;  for  happily  the  doors  of  Chris- 
tian usefulness  are  open  to  all  who  will  knock  at  them.  In  this  work 
among  the  outcasts  of  our  great  cities  it  is  remarkable  how  little  has 
been  done  by  organizations,  and  how  much  by  the  patient  labors  of  indi- 
vidual men  whom  God  has  called  to  the  task  by  special  circumstances. 
Mr.  Stephenson,  the  founder  of  this  Home,  was  brought  as  a minister 
from  country  duties  to  reside  in  the  midst  of  London,  and  seven  years 
ago  or  more  found  himself  in  Lambeth,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  no- 
torious New  Cut.  “I  soon  saw  little  children,  ” he  says,  “ in  a condition 
that  made  my  heart  bleed.  There  they  were,  ragged,  shoeless,  filthy; 
their  faces  pinched  with  hunger,  and  premature  wretchedness  staring 
out  of  their  too  bright  eyes ; and  I began  to  feel  that  now  my  time  was 
come.  Here  were  my  poor  little  brothers  and  sisters,  sold  to  hunger 
and  the  devil,  and  I could  not  be  free  of  their  blood  if  I did  not  at  least 
try  to  save  some  of  them.” ' Long  before  he  had  been  brought  to  the  con- 
viction that  “ the  religion  which  does  not  fathom  the  social  deeps,  and 
heal  the  social  sores,  cannot  be  Christ’s  religion.”  The  work  done  by 
Immanuel  Wichern  at  the  Rauhe  Haus  Refuge,  and  by  Theodore  Flied- 
ner,  at  the  Kaiserswerth  Institute,  had  especially  interested  him,  and  he 
had  set  himself  to  study  the  methods  best  adapted  to  English  habits,  in 
hope  that  some  day  he  might  be  able  to  apply  them.  A few  friends 
were  first  consulted,  and  a beginning  made,  by  way  of  “private  vent- 
ure.” A house  was  taken  that  was  little  more  than  a cottage.  “ A 
stable  at  the  back  was  made  the  dining-room  and  lavatory.  The  loft 
29 


456 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yoltbie. 


above  became  a dormitory,  and  the  only  play-ground  was  a patch  some 
four  yards  square,  with  a gate-way,  meant  for  the  passage  of  a single 
cart.  And  this  was  workshop,  too!”  But  here  they  contrived  to  re- 
ceive and  shelter  twenty  poor  lads.  The  vrork  rapidly  grew  upon  them, 
and  in  like  proportion  the  means  came  in,  so  that  week  by  week  all 
debts  were  paid.  A small  committee  was  formed ; and  a year  had  hardly 
passed  when  the  adjoining  house  was  taken,  and  the  number  of  boys 
under  care  increased  to  thirty-seven.  The  more  that  was  accomplished, 
the  greater  seemed  the  need;  the  applications  for  admission  were  soon 
too  numerous;  children  were  being  turned  almost  daily  from  the  doors, 
and  beyond  them  and  around  them  was  a great  world  of  wretchedness 
all  untouched.  Another  effort  was  made,  and  premises  at  length  were 
found  on  the  site  of  the  present  buildings,  which  were  adapted  to  the 
purpose,  and  gradually  fitted  to  the  still  growing  work. 

The  institution  has  since  developed  over  a wider  field;  it  has  now  a 
Certified  Industrial  School  associated  with  it  near  Gravesend ; it  has  a 
Farm  Branch,  near  Bolton,  in  Lancashire ; and  it  has  a Reception  Home 
in  Canada.  It  has  now  four  hundred  and  thirty-five  children  in  resi- 
dence in  the'se  four  branches ; and  it  has  sent  forth  four  hundred  to  earn 
their  living  by  honest  labor.  Mr.  Stephenson  is  a member  of  the 
London  School  Board  ; he  is  widely  known  as  a Wesleyan  minister, 
and  his  special  work,  gradually  demanding  his  almost  exclusive  atten- 
tion, could  not  but  be  recognized  with  thankfulness  by  his  brethren  in 
the  ministry.  The  Children’s  Home  has,  therefore,  been  adopted  as  a 
Methodist  institution;  it  makes  its  annual  report  to  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Conference,  and  Mr.  Stephenson  holds  his  place  of  right  as  Prin- 
cipal with  the  sanction  of  the  connectional  authorities ; but  we  believe  it 
is  the  only  Methodist  institution  so  recognized,  the  committee  of  which 
is  not  wholly  Methodist;  and  the  association  with  them  of  other  expe- 
rienced laborers  on  the  same  ground,  such  as  Mr.  James  Macgregor,  is 
pledge  that  denominational  ends  are  lost  sight  of  in  the  single  aim  to 
rescue  and  elevate  these  neglected  children. 

Ye  are  gratified  to  learn  that  during  the  nine  years  the  in- 
stitution mentioned  above  by  Mr.  Stevens  has  been  in  existence, 
it  has  helped  more  than  a thousand  children  “to  rise  from 
neglect,  and  ignorance,  and  wretchedness,  and  become  virtuous, 
honest,  and  religious.” 

While  on  a visit  to  the  Children’s  Home,  September,  1878, 


•AT  eslet’s  Liberality  ayd  Catholicity.  457 


it  was  our  pleasure  to  ask  the  Rev.  T.  Bowman  Stephenson, 
j\I.  A.,  its  gifted  founder  and  head,  to  contribute  Wesley  the 
Philahtheopist  to  the  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  His  an- 
swer was,  that,  being  already  overworked,  and  tasked  to  the 
utmost  of  his  time  and  strength,  it  would  not  be  in  his  power 
to  write  the  article  required  ; otherwise  it  would  be  his  delight 
to  contribute  to  such  a work.  This  great-souled  man,  who,  as 
a philanthropist,  is  following  so  closely  in  the  footprints  of 
John  Wesley,  was  in  perfect  accord  with  the  Memorial  Volume 
itself  and  the  Monumental  Church  in  Savannah.  To  show  his 
interest  in  the  latter,  he  promised  that  the  children  of  the 
Home  should  give  to  it  the  benefit  of  one  or  more  of  their  mem- 
orable exhibitions.  What  more  beautiful ! What  a spectacle 
for  men  and  angels  ! how  appropriate  is  it  for  children  rescued 
from  poverty  and  shame,  and  saved  to  virtue,  honesty,  and 
rehgion,  to  aid  the  building  of  a monument  to  the  man  who 
pleaded  so  earnestly  the  cause  of  the  homeless  waifs  and 
orphans  of  his  native  land ! And  to  show  his  interest  in  the 
former,  Mr.  Stephenson,  while  reluctantly  declining  to  write 
an  article  for  it  himself,  pointed  out  how  he  might,  as  he 
thought,  render  a more  important  service.  It  so  happened 
that  Dean  Stanley,  a short  time  before,  had  delivered  an 
address  before  the  Children’s  Home,  and  had  put  the  manu- 
script into  his  hands  for  publication.  This  address,  which  had 
not  been  published,  Mr.  Stephenson — the  Dean  approving — 
kindly  offered  to  me  for  the  Memorial  Volume.  The  proposi- 
tion was  accepted,  because  the  address  embraced  not  only  the 
subject  assigned  to  Mr.  Stephenson,  but  another,  on  which  I 
had  requested  the  Dean  to  write.  A short  time  before  this 
interview  with  Mr.  Stephenson  I had  asked  Dean  Stanley  to 
give  me  not  only  his  address  on  unveiling  the  Wesley  monu- 
ment, in  AVestminster  Abbey,  but  to  contribute  an  article  on 
Wesley’s  catholicity.  In  answer  the  Dean  most  courteously 
gave  permission  to  use  the  address  delivered  in  the  Abbey, 
and  said,  if  sufficient  time  were  allowed,  he  could  give  me 


458 


The  Wesley  Mejiorial  VoT.mrE. 


“Wesley’s  Catholicity,”  also.  Hence  I gladly  accepted  the 
address  pronounced  before  the  Children’s  Home,  a copy  of 
which,  printed  for  the  Wesley  Memorial  Yolume,  at  the 
press  of  the  Children’s  Home,  in  London,  and  revised  and  cor- 
rected by  Dean  Stanley  himself,  has  been  sent  to  me  by  Mr. 
Stephenson.  Than  the  address  given  below,  nothing  more 
briefly  and  appropriately  illustrates  the  liberality  and  catho- 
licity of  John  Wesley,  the  founder  of  Methodism  : 

Addreas  delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  New  Chapel  and  Schools  of  the  Chil- 
dren's Nome,  Bonner  Road,  London,  hy  the  Rev.  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stan- 
ley, D.D.,  LL.D.,  Dean  of  Westminster. 

My  Dear  Friends;  There  are  two  peculiar  characteristics  of  this 
meeting,  which  have  been  brought  before  you  by  your  distinguished 
chairman,  and  whicli  induce  me  to  say  a few  words  to  you. 

First,  there  is  the  object  for  which  this  institution  exists.  It  is  the 
gathering  of  children  out  of  the  bad  circumstances  in  which  they  are 
placed,  and  trying,  by  education,  to  form  new  characters  within  them. 
Now,  if  I were  to  put  this  into  the  language  of  the  Bible,  the  attempt  is 
to  convert,  redeem,  regenerate  tliem. 

But  before  I proceed,  let  me,  for  a moment,  explain  more  exactly  those 
words  as  applied  to  cases  like  this. 

To  convert  means  to  turn  round  the  whole  mind  in  a direction  different 
from  that  in  which  it  has  been  walking  before.  That  is  what  is  attempted 
with  these  children.  They  have  been  wandering  to  and  fro,  with  no  fixed 
object.  Your  object  is  to  put  them  in  the  right  way;  to  make  them 
walk  straight  forward ; to  give  them  a fixed  purpose  in  life,  and  direct 
their  aim. 

To  redeem  means  to  deliver  from  bondage.  These  children  have  been 
in  the  bondage  of  cruel  circumstances,  of  bad  homes,  of  bad  company. 
Your  object  is  to  set  them  free  from  this  bondage,  and  give  them  that 
liberty  of  becoming  good  to  which  every  Englishman  is  entitled,  but 
which  can  hardly  be  attained  when  all  outward  things  are  so  mucli 
against  it  as  has  been  the  case  with  these  children. 

To  regenerate  is  to  create  a new  disposition ; to  give  to  the  intellect 
and  the  heart  a new  moral  birth.  That,  also,  is  what  is  attempted  with 
these  children;  the  greatest  of  all  tasks,  even  with  the  most  favorable 
circumstances.  How  much  more  difficult  under  circumstances  like  theirs ! 


Wesley’s  Liberality  and  Catholicity.  459 


Now,  the  question  which  sometimes  arises  in  our  minds  as  we  consider 
such  attempts  as  this,  or  even  as  we  consider  any  set  of  human  beings,  is 
this: — 

Is  it  possible  to  effect  such  a ciiange  in  our  character  ? We  know  that 
a great  many  good  and  evil  dispositions,  a great  many  intellectual  excel- 
lences and  defects,  are  born  in  us.  Can  we  change  them,  or,  at  any 
rate,  if  we  cannot  change  them,  can  a new  mind  be  born  again  within 
their  precincts  ? Can  the  grooves  of  our  pathway  be  enlarged  and  recti- 
fied ? Can  the  bonds  be  broken  ? I do  not  now  speak  of  the  mysterious 
workings  of  a higher  power.  With  Him  we  know  all  things  are  possible ; 
without  Him  we  may  almost  say  all  things  are  impossible.  But  can  we 
trace  in  experience  what  are  the  means  by  which  the  divine  Spirit  guides 
us,  and  which  we  must  lay  hold  of?  You  remember  Oliver  Cromwell’s 
speech  to  his  soldiers : “ Trust  in  God,  and  keep  your  powder  dry.” 
What  is  the  powder  which  we  must  keep  dry  and  pure  in  order  for  it  to 
explode  when  the  spark  comes  ? 

Now  here  there  are  two  or  three  reasons  which  ought,  in  the  face  of 
the  greatest  difficulties,  to  give  us  courage  and  hope.  First,  there  is  the 
chance  of  the  change  of  circumstances,  especially  with  such  circum- 
stances as  those  with  which  we  have  to  deal  here.  Imagine  a child 
brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  darkened  with  filth,  loaded  with  impurity, 
bristling  with  curses,  crowded  with  temptations.  May  we  not  say  that 
in  such  an  atmosphere  his  character  must,  by  a dreadful  necessity,  take 
a shape  and  color  from  the  circumstances  around  him  ? Our  sailors  in 
the  Arctic  regions,  when  wrapped  in  six  months’  darkness,  almost  like 
the  birds  and  beasts  which  in  those  parts  become  white  as  the  surround- 
ing snows,  lost  their  fresh  and  ruddy  complexion,  and  became  pale 
and  bloodless,  till  the  veil  of  darkness  was  lifted  up,  and  the  sun 
once  more  shone  upon  them.  No  doubt,  in  these  dens  and  nurseries  of 
vice  it  is  possible  that  by  a miracle  of  grace  a little  child  may  remain 
pure  among  the  impure,  gentle  among  the  cruel,  intelligent  among  the 
brutes.  But  what  is  far  more  common  is,  that  they,  and  we,  and  all  of 
us,  like  all  those  Arctic  sailors,  lose  for  a time  the  very  life-blood  of  our 
souls.  What  we  have  to  do  is  to  change  the  circumstances ; to  change 
the  air.  What  we  have  to  pray  is,  that  petition  in  the  Lord’s  prayer, 
“ Lead  us  not  into  temptation.”  To  break  the  force  of  temi^tation,  or, 
as  a wise  scholar  has  said,  to  alter  the  unfavorable  conditions  against 
which  no  average  human  being  can  stand,  is  one  chief  object  of  Cliristian 
endeavor.  And  when  these  conditions  are  changed,  then  it  is  astonish- 
ing to  see  how  the  human  spirit  shoots  upward,  like  a bird  from  a cage. 


460 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


like  a plant  to  meet  the  sunlight.  I myself  have  seen  an  example  of  a 
boy  brought  up  in  bad,  lawless  ways:  fierce  as  a wild  animal,  ungovern- 
able as  a savage ; yet  in  a few  months,  when  these  foul  traditions  had 
faded  away,  and  he  had  been  placed  under  kinder  influences,  it  was  as 
though  a demon  were  cast  out ; he  sat  clothed,  and  clean,  and  in  his 
right  mind,  destined,  in  all  probability,  to  grow  up  a good  and  useful 
man. 

But,  of  course,  it  is  not  enough  for  the  recovery  of  lost  souls,  or  lost 
children,  that  they  should  merely  l)e  redeemed  or  delivered  from  evil ; 
they  must  have  a new  influence  for  good  brought  to  bear  upon  them ; 
what  Dr.  Chalmers  used  to  call  “the  expulsive  ijower  of  a new  affec- 
tion.” And  this  begins  w'ith  the  very  first  awakening  of  self-respect,  by 
the  thought  that  there  is  any  one  to  care  for  us. 

It  was  a saying  of  one  who  afterward  became  a distinguished  philoso- 
pher, Jeremy  Bentham,  that  he  owed  every  thing  to  the  feeling  excited 
in  his  own  mind  by  the  kindness  of  the  late  Lord  Lansdowue : “ He  took 
me  out  of  the  bottomless  pit  of  humiliation;  he  made  me  feel  that  I was 
something.”  And  when  not  only  this  feeling  of  self-respect  is  engen- 
dered, but  new  23ursuits  and  new  characters  are  placed  before  us,  then 
also  whatever  there  is  good  is  drawn  toward  them,  and  the  transforma- 
tion, the  regeneration,  of  our  characters  begins  indeed.  Let  me  give 
you  two  examples  of  this  from  very  different  quarters.  Not  long  ago  I 
was  traveling  on  the  railroad,  and  was  accfosted  by  a stranger,  who  said, 
“I  owe  my  whole  fortune  in  life  to  your  father.”  I asked,  “How?” 
He  replied,  “I  was  a little  boy  in  the  small  town  near  which  he  lived. 
He  came  over,  years  ago,  at  a time  when  such  things  were  unusual  for 
clergymen,  and  delivered  a lecture  on  geology.  I went  there  out  of  cu- 
riosity, a little  boy,  without  shoes  and  stockings,  and  listened,  and  the 
lecturer  stimulated  me  to  think  and  to  study,  and  I advanced  from  one 
place  to  another,  until  I became  what  you  now  see  me,  a member  of  a 
flourishing  house  in  the  same  town  where  I received  this  new  birth  of 
my  character,  and  from  that  day  to  this  I have  never  ceased  to  revere  the 
memory  of  the  man  to  whom  I owed  so  much.”  That  is  an  example  of 
the  moral  effect  of  a new  intellectual  interest  being  kindled.  And  now 
let  me  give  you  another  instance  from  a country  far  away,  which  shows 
how,  under  conditions  of  race  and  soil  altogether  different,  still  the  same 
awakening  impulse  may  be  communicated.  Three  years  ago  I visited  at 
Moscow  a small  establishment  of  boys  somewhat  like  those  who  are  in 
these  schools,  but  from  a lower  and  worse  grade.  It  was  supported  and 
kept  alive  by  the  energy  and  examjple  of  a young  Russian  merchant. 


Wesley’s  Libeeality  and  Catholicity.  461 


who  lived  entirely  with  those  boys,  and  who  had  converted  them  from 
their  evil  ways  to  be  true-hearted,  loyal,  affectionate  scholars.  Even  now 
I seem  to  hear  the  hymn  which  they  sang  with  their  sweet,  plaintive 
voices — the  prayer  of  the  penitent  thief,  “Lord,  remember  me  when 
thou  comest  into  thy  kingdom.”  That  hymn  I have  never  forgotten, 
nor  have  I forgotten  the  expression  of  the  young  merchant’s  countenance. 
He  could  speak  no  word  of  English,  nothing  but  Russian,  but  his  face 
told  what  he  was;  and  when  I left  the  place  I could  not  help  saying, 
that  I had  seen  written  upon  it  not  only  the  ten  commandments  of  Si- 
nai, but  the  eight  beatitudes  of  the  Galilean  mount. 

You  will  see  that  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  at  which  I was  aim- 
ing, that  it  is  possible  to  change  the  characters  of  little  human  creatures 
by  taking  them  out  of  bad  circumstances,  by  putting  them  under  good 
influences,  and  that  those  good  influences  ai-e  chiefly  such  as  come  from 
the  stimulating  power  of  new  thoughts,  new  interests,  new  examples. 

And  this  is  the  process  by  which  Christianity  itself  has  worked  upon 
mankind ; by  dispersing  the  foul  atmosphere  of  the  bad  parts  of  jragan- 
ism ; by  creating  the  good  atmosphere  of  freedom,  purity,  and  gentle- 
ness ; by  giving  a new  and  upward  direction  to  our  thoughts ; by  giving 
us  the  holiest  and  brightest  representation  of  what  God  is,  and  what 
men  ought  to  be. 

And  when  I ask  whence  it  was  that  the  spirit  was  derived  which  in 
our  latter  days  has  given  birth  to  these  schools,  I answer,  that  it  came 
from  one  man,  who,  with  many  failings  and  many  weaknesses,  is  yet  one 
of  the  flnest  examples  of  Christian  culture  that  this  country  has  produced 
— John  Wesley. 

There  are  two  particular  aspects  of  these  schools  in  which  he  would 
have  delighted,  and  which  may  fairly  claim  his  sanction. 

One  is,  that  of  which  I have  already  spoken— the  determination  to  re- 
claim and  recover  the  lost.  Many  other  virtues  and  many  other  graces 
the  English  nation  and  the  English  Church  possessed  in  the  times  before 
John  "Wesley  rose.  But  this  mission  was  pre-eminently  his  own,  and 
nobly  he  fulfilled  it ; and  since  that  time  it  has  been  taken  up  within  the 
Church  and  without  the  Church,  with  equal  zeal  throughout  the  country. 

Bethnal  Green  was  at  that  time  a suburban  hamlet,  and  very  different 
from  the  crowded  town  which  it  has  since  become.  But  there  was  al- 
ready much  distress,  and  that  cry  of  distress  called  John  Wesley  to  the 
rescue.  It  is  just  one  hundred  years  ago  that  he  heard  the  cry  and  came 
among  you  here.  “Many,”  he  says  in  his  journal  of  June  15,  1777,  “I 
find  in  such  poverty  as  few  can  conceive  without  seeing  it.  O,  why  do 


462 


The  Wesley  Mejvioetal  Volume. 


not  all  the  rich  that  fear  God  constantly  visit  the  poor  ? Can  they  spend 
part  of  their  spare  time  better  ? Certainly  not ; as  they  will  find  in  that 
day  when  every  man  shall  receive  his  reward  according  to  his  own  la- 
bor.” That  was  the  first  entrance  of  the  spirit  of  Wesley  into  Bethnal 
Green ; and  well  has  it  been  carried  out  since  in  these  schools. 

The  second  peculiarity  of  this  institution  is,  tliat  in  the  face  of  the 
great  moral  evils  from  which  these  children  are  rescued,  it  knows 
nothing  of  the  divisions  which  separate  English  Christians;  it  knows 
only  the  good  which  unites  us  all.  And  in  this  again  John  Wesley 
rose  above  not  only  his  own  age,  but  above  ours  also.  What  espe- 
cially distinguished  him  above  the  teachers  of  his  time  was,  what  he 
himself  called  the  catholic,  that  is,  the  comprehensive  spirit  of  relig- 
ion. “The  whole  world,”  he  said,  “ will  never  be  converted  except 
by  those  of  a truly  catholic  spirit.”  Then  I find  another  entry  in 
Wesley’s  journal  of  a visit  to  Bethnal  Green.  “I  ijreached,”  he  says 
on  November  20,  1785,  “in  Bethnal  Green  Church,  [the  Church  of  niy 
excellent  friend  the  present  rector,  who  no  doubt  would  have  wel- 
comed John  Wesley  as  he  welcomes  this  good  object  to-day,]  and 
spoke  as  plainly  as  I possibly  could  on  having  a form  of  godliness, 
but  denying  the  power  thereof.  And  this  I judged,”  he  says,  “far 
more  suitable  to  such  a congregation  than  talking  about  justification 
by  faith.”  He  meant,  no  doubt,  what  he  repeats  again  and  again 
throughout  his  sermons,  that  even  the  most  favorite  expressions  of 
our  own  particular  opinions  ought  to  be  kept  in  comparative  subor- 
dination to  the  great  moral  truths  of  Christianity,  which  we  all  hold 
in  common.  Toward  the  close  of  Wesley’s  long  career  he  thus  ex- 
pressed himself:  “Near  fifty  years  ago  a great  and  good  man.  Dr. 
Potter,  then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  gave  me  an  advice  for  which 
I have  ever  since  had  occasion  to  bless  God.  ‘If  you  desire  to  be  ex- 
tensively useful,  do  not  spend  your  time  and  strength  in  contending 
for  or  against  such  things  as  are  of  a disputable  nature,  but  in  testi- 
fying against  open  and  notorious  vice,  and  in  promoting  real  spiritual 
holiness.’”  “Let  us  keejj,”  adds  Wesley,  “to  this,  leaving  a thou- 
sand disputable  points  to  those  that  have  no  better  business  than  to 
toss  the  ball  of  controversy  to  and  fro — let  us  keep  close  to  our  point. 
Let  us  bear  a faithful  testimony  in  our  several  stations  against  all 
ungodliness  and  unrighteousness,  and  with  all  our  might  recommend 
that  inward  and  outwai-d  holiness  without  which  no  man  shall  see 
the  Lord.”  He  knew  that  it  was  not  an  easy  task  to  make  this  his 
chief  object.  “I  set  out,”  he  says,  “near  fifty  years  ago,”  (at  the 


Wesley’s  Libeealitt  and  Catholicity.  463 


same  time  that  he  received  the  advice  from  Archbishop  Potter,)  “with 
this  principle:  ‘Whosoever  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother  and  sister  and  mother.’  But  there  is 
no  one  living  that  has  been  more  abused  for  his  pains,  even  to  this 
day;  but  it  is  all  well,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  I shall  go  on.” 

Let  us  follow  the  advice  of  “ that  great  and  good  man,  Dr.  Potter, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,”  and  that  still  greater  and  better  man,  John 
Wesley,  and  it  will  be  all  well  with  us,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  we  shall 


THE  WESLEYAN  LYEIC  POETEY. 


I 

The  lyrical  literature  of  Methodism  is  pre-eminent  both  for 
its  character  and  its  extent.  It  was  a necessary  condition 
of  the  evangelical  reformation  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  an 
improved  psalmody  should  be  provided.  Sternhold  and  Hop- 
kins, though  not  entirely  obnoxious  to  "Wesley’s  charge  against 
them  of  “ miserable,  scandalous  doggerel,”  were  unsuited  to 
both  the  intellectual  and  moral  advancement  which  the  new 
religious  movement  was  to  introduce ; and  Tate  and  Brady 
were  so  extremely  deficient  in  these  respects,  that  in  com- 
parison with  them  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  have  been  called 
David  and  Asaph.  The  necessary  psalmody  was  not  only  pro- 
vided as  a result  of  the  new  movement,  but  was  begun  even  in 
anticipation  of  it.  The  Wesleys  published  their  first  Hymn 
Book  as  early  as  1738,*  the  year  in  which  they  date  their  re- 
generated life  ; and  the  next  year — recognized  as  the  epoch  of 
Methodism — was  signalized  by  the  appearance  of  their  “ Hymns 
and  Sacred  Poems,”  two  editions  of  which  appeared  before  its 
close.  And  now  rapidly  followed,  year  after  year,  sometimes 
twice  a year,  not  only  new  editions  of  these  volumes,  but  new 
poetic  works,  which  were  scattered  more  extensively  than  any 
other  of  their  publications  through  England,  Wales,  Ireland, 
the  British  West  Indies,  the  North  American  provinces,  and 
the  United  States,  till  not  less  than  forty-nine  poetical  publica- 
tions were  enumerated  among  their  literary  works ; and  before 
Wesley’s  death  a common  psalmody,  sung  mostly  to  a common 
music,  resounded  through  all  the  Methodist  chapels  of  the  En- 
glish and  American  world.  The  achievement  accomplished  by 


The  Savannah  Hymn  Book  was  published  at  Charles-town  in  173V. — ^Editor. 


The  'V\^esleyan  Lteic  Poetey. 


465 


Methodism  in  this  respect  is  alone  one  of  the  most  extraor- 
dinary historical  facts  of  the  last  century.  Its  influence  on 
the  popular  taste,  intellectual  as  well  as  moral,  could  not  fail  to 
be  incalculably  great.  So  thorough  lias  been  the  subsequent 
revohition  in  the  popular  appreciation  of  sacred  poetry,  that 
much  of  the  psalmody  sung  in  the  churches  of  England  at  the 
advent  of  Methodism  would  not  now  be  tolerated.  Its  effect, 
in  many  instances,  would  be  even  ludicrous. 

"Watts  deserves  the  credit  of  leading  the  way  in  this  impor- 
tant reform.  The  first  poetical  publication  of  the  "Wesleys  was 
largely  made  up  of  his  hymns,  but  Charles  W esley  soon  became 
his  rival  in  popular  estimation.  The  Wesleys  soon  towered 
above  all  their  predecessors  and  contemporaries  in  this  depart- 
ment of  literature,  and  no  later  writer  of  hymns  can  dispute 
their  common  superiority.  Their  example,  and  the  new  relig- 
ious wants  of  the  times,  prompted  the  emulation  or  genius  of 
many  able  but  inferior  writers,*  most  of  them  directly  or  in- 
directly under  the  Methodistic  influence,  and  the  hymns  of 
Doddridge,  Toplady,  Hewton,  Cowper,  Cennick,  Steele,  and 
Beddome  rapidly  appeared  and  promoted  the  lyrical  reform. 
The  comparative  claims  of  "Watts  and  Charles  "Wesley  are  yet 
undetermined,  but  their  common  pre-eminence  is  undisputed. 
The  verdict  of  literary  criticism  has  generally  been  in  favor  of 
Watts;  but  Charles  "Wesley  has  suffered  from  the  undeserved 
prejudice  of  the  literary  world  against  Methodism — a prejudice 
now  fast  gi^dng  way.  In  proportion  as  it  has  subsided  has 
his  extraordinary  genius  come  to  be  recognized  ; and  it  has  be- 
come probable  that  sooner  or  later  he  will  be  pronounced  the 
equal,  if  not  the  superior,  of  his  great  contemporary,  . "Watts 
himself  acknowledged  that  he  would  give  all  he  had  wi’itten 
for  the  credit  of  being  the  author  of  Charles  "Wesley’s  unri- 
valed hymn,  entitled  “Wrestling  Jacob.” 

Every  important  doctrine  of  Holy  Scripture,  every  degree 


* This  remark  does  not  detract  from  Cowper’s  poetical  excellence  in  other  re- 
spects. Milton,  it  has  been  said,  composed  but  one  good  psalm. 


466 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


of  spiritual  experience,  almost  every  shade  of  religious  thought 
and  feeling,  and  nearly  every  ordinary  relation  and  incident 
of  human  life,  are  treated  in  Charles  Wesley’s  abundant  and 
ever- varying  verse,  hlo  poet  surpasses  him  in  the  variety  of 
his  themes.  Earely  can  any  man  open  his  volumes  'without 
finding  something  apposite  to  his  own  moods  or  wants. 

The  whole  soul  of  Charles  Wesley  was  imbued  with  poetic 
genius.  His  thoughts  seemed  to  bask  and  revel  in  melody 
and  ]-hythm.  The  variety  of  his  meters  (said  to  be  unequaled 
by  any  English  writer  whatever)  shows  how  impulsive  were 
his  poetic  emotions,  and  how  wonderful  his  facility  in  their 
spontaneous  and  varied  utterance.  In  the  Wesleyan  hymn 
book  alone  they  amount  to  at  least  twenty-six,  and  others  are 
found  in  his  other  productions.  They  march,  at  times,  like 
lengthened  processions  with  solemn  grandeur ; they  sweep  at 
other  times  like  chariots  of  fire  through  the  heavens ; they  are 
broken  like  the  sobs  of  grief  at  the  graveside,  play  like  the  joy- 
ful affections  of  childhood  at  the  hearth,  or  shout  like  victors 
in  the  fray  of  the  battle-field.  Ho  man  ever  surpassed  Charles 
Wesley  in  the  harmonies  of  language.  To  him  it  was  a dia- 
pason. 

He  never  seems  to  labor  in  his  poetic  compositions.  The 
reader  feels  that  they  were  necessary  utterances  of  a heart 
palpitating  with  emotion  and  music.  Ho  words  seem  to  be 
put  in  for  effect ; but  effective  phrases,  brief,  surprising,  inca- 
pable of  improvement,  are  continually  and  spontaneously  oc- 
curring, “ like  lightning,”  says  Montgomery,  “ revealing  for 
a moment  the  whole  hemisphere.”  His  language  is  never  tu- 
mid ; the  most  and  the  least  cultivated  minds  appreciate  him 
with  surprised  delight ; his  metaphors,  abundant  and  vivid,  are 
seldom  far-fetched  or  strained ; his  rhymes  seldom  or  never 
constrained.  His  style  is  throughout  severely  pure. 

The  biographer  of  Watts  acknowledges  “the  faulty  versifi- 
cation and  inelegant  construction  of  some  of  his  hymns,  which 
have  been  pointed  out  as  their  principal  defects,”  but  adds, 


The  'Wesleyan  Lyric  Poetry. 


467 


“ they  Y-o-uld  have  never  occurred  had  they  been  written  under 
the  same  cii'cnnistances  as  those  of  his  Arminian  successor.”  * 
The  ditference  of  “ circumstances  ” may  account  for  the  fact, 
but  does  not  cancel  it.  He  contends  for  the  superiority  of 
Watts,  but  admits  the  talent  of  'Wesley.  “In  estimating,”  he 
says,  “ the  merits  of  these  two  great  hymnists — the  greatest, 
unquestionably,  that  our  country  can  boast — I should  not  hesi- 
tate to  ascribe  to  the  former  greater  skiU  in  design,  to  the 
latter  in  execution ; to  the  former  more  originality,  to  the 
latter  more  pohsh.  Many  of  Wesley’s  flights  are  bold,  daring, 
and  magnifleent.”  “ Originality  ” and  “ skill  in  design  ” are 
among  Charles  Wesley’s  most  peculiar  excellences.  A critic, 
whose  theological  predilections  are  all  in  favor  of  Watts,  re- 
marks : “ The  opening  conjilets  of  his  hymns  and  psalms  often 
give  brilliant  promises  ; they  seem  to  be  tlie  preludes  of  fault- 
less Ip'ics — outbursts  of  genuine  song,  which  need  only  to  be 
sustained  to  be  without  superiors  in  uninspired  verse.  But 
often  they  are  not  sustained.  They  are  followed  by  stanzas 
which  doom  them  in  every  pulpit.”  f The  wings  of  Charles 
Wesley’s  muse  seldom  or  never  droop  in  her  flight. 

Thi’ough  most  of  his  life  the  poet  of  Methodism  incessantly  sur- 
prised its  Societies  by  the  appearance  of  new  poetical  publica- 
tions. Besides  his  hymns  for  Sunday  public  worship,  special 
“ Hymns  for  the  W atch-nights,”  “ Hymns  on  the  Lord’s  Supper,” 
“ Hymns  for  the  Hativity  of  Our  Lord,”  “ Hymns  for  our  Lord’s 
Eesurrection,”  “ Hymns  for  the  Ascension,”  “ Gloria  Patria,  or 
Hymns  to  the  Trinity,”  “ Hymns  for  Public  Thanksgiving,” 
“Hymns  occasioned  by  the  Earthquake,”  in  1750,  “Hymns  for 
Times  of  Trouble  and  Persecution,”  in  1756,  “ Hymns  for  the 
expected  Invasion,”  in  1756,  “ Hymns  for  Methodist  Preach- 
ers,” in  1758,  “ Hymns  for  Hew-year’s  Day,”  “ Hymns  for 


* Milner’s  Life  of  tVatts.  Creamer  makes  it  appear  probable  that  Milner  was 
ignorant  of  the  “far  greater  mass”  of  Wesley’s  hymns.  Impartial  critics  will  at 
least  agree  that  Milner  has  mistaken  the  chi«f  traits  of  Wesley’s  genius, 
i Bibliotheca  Sacra,  January,  1869,  art.  “ Hymnology.” 


468 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


the  Use  of  Families,”  “ Flymns  for  Children,”  etc.,  “ Funeral 
Hymns,”  “ Hymns  written  in  the  Times  of  the  Tumults,”  in 
1780,  “Hymns  for  the  ISTation,”  in  1782,  and,  last  of  all  his  pub- 
lications, poetic  “ Prayers  for  Condemned  Malefactors,”  in  1785 
- — but  three  years  before  he  ceased  at  once  to  sing  and  live — 
kept  the  Methodist  community,  and  the  popular  mind  generally, 
more  or  less  astir  by  the  rapturous  strains  of  liis  lyre.  Many 
of  them  related  to  contemporaneous  events,  wliich  could  not 
fail  to  give  them  special  interest  and  influence.  Flis  funeral 
hymns,  unrivaled  by  any  similar  poetry,  were  sung  along  the 
highways  as  the  dead  were  borne  to  their  graves.  His  “ Hymns 
for  Families  ” are  admired  by  some  of  his  critics  as  the  best  ex- 
amples of  his  genius.  They  are,  at  least,  the  best  exhibition  of 
his  own  pure  and  genial  heart,  as  many  of  their  themes  were 
dravm  from  incidents  of  his  domestic  life.  They  consist  of 
pieces,  “For  a Woman  in  Travail,”  “Thanksgiving  for  her 
Safe  Delivery,”  “ At  the  Baptism  of  a Child,”  “ At  sending  a 
Child  to  Boarding-school,”  “ Thanksgiving  after  a Recovery 
from  the  Small-pox,”  “ Oblation  of  a Sick  Friend,”  “ Prayers  for 
a Sick  Child,”  “ A Father’s  Prayer  for  his  Son,”  “ The  Collier’s 
Hymn,”  “For  a Persecuting  Flusband,”  “For  an  Unconverted 
Wife,”  “For  Unconverted  Relations,”  “For  a Family  in 
Want,”  “ To  be  sung  at  the  Tea-table,”  “ For'  one  retired  into 
the  Country,”  “A  Wedding  Song.”  This  volume  contains  also 
many  other  hymns  for  parents  and  children,  masters  and  serv- 
ants, for  domestic  bereavements,  for  the  Sabbath,  for  sleep,  for 
going  to  work,  for  morning  and  evening. 

In  the  Wesleyan  Hymn  Book  are  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  hymns  by  Charles  Wesley  ; but  these  are  not  one  tenth 
of  his  poetical  compositions.  About  four  thousand  six  hun- 
dred have  been  printed,  and  about  two  thousand  still  remain 
in  manuscript.  In  the  space  of  twenty-two  years  he  revised 
his  publications  eight  times ; but  the  almost  perfect  literary 
flnish  of  his  hymns,  as  contained  in  the  Wesleyan  Collection, 
is,  to  no  small  extent,  the  effect  of  his  brother’s  revision. 


The  W ESLETAN  LyEIC  PoETET. 


469 


■In'll n "Wesley  was  rigorously  severe  in  Ms  criticisms,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  conscious  that  tbe  psalmody  of  Methodism  was  to 
be  one  of  its  chief  providential  facts — at  once  its  liturgy  and 
psalter  to  millions.  Throiighont  his  life,  therefore,  he  fre- 
quently returned  to  the  task  of  its  laborious  revision.  He  en- 
riched it  Mmself  with  some  fine  oi’iginal  contributions,  and 
with  about  twenty-four  translations  from  the  Glerman.  He 
has  not  only  given  the  latter  better  versions  than  they  have 
received  from  any  other  hand,  but  has  excelled  the  originals. 
The  biographer  of  Watts  regrets  that  no  sufiiciently  able  hand 
has  remedied  the  defects  of  his  style  and  versification.  He 
Axould,  doubtless,  compare  better  with  Charles  "Wesley  in  these 
respects  had  he  possessed  so  skillful  a corrector  as  the  latter 
found  in  Ms  brother.'^  The  Methodist  psalmody  was,  in  fine, 
the  life-long  labor  of  both  the  "Wesleys,  and  is  one  of  the 
noblest  monuments  of  the  religious  movement  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  spirit  of  that  great  evangelical  revolution  is  em- 
bodied forever  in  the  poetry  of  Charles  "Wesley.  Hothing  else 
of  human  origin,  not  even  the  sermons  of  John  "Wesley,  more 
fully  expresses  the  very  essence  of  Methodism.  A competent 
judge  has  said  : “ These  very  hymns,  if  the  writer  had  not  been 
connected  with  Methodism,  would  have  shown  a very  different 
phase ; for  while  the  depth  and  richness  of  them  are  the  writ- 
er’s, the  epigrammatic  intensity,  and  the  pressure  which  marks 
them,  belongs  to  Methodism.  They  may  be  regarded  as  the 
representatives  of  a modern  devotional  style  which  has  pre- 
vailed qmte  as  much  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  "Wesleyan 
community  as  within  it.  Charles  "Wesley’s  hymns  on  the  one 
hand,  and  those  of  Toplady,  Cowper,  and  Hewton  on  the  other, 

* Wesley’s  occasional  emendations  of  Watts  are  striking  examples  of  his  owa 
poetic  skiU.  The  grand  hymn,  “ Before  Jehovah’s  awful  throne,”  is  an  instance. 

“Nations  attend  before  his  throne 
With  solemn  fear,  with  sacred  joy.” — WaWt. 

“ Before  Jehovah’s  awful  throne. 

Ye  nations  bow  with  sacred  joy.” — Wesley. 


470 


The  Yv^esley  Me.mokial  Volume. 


mark  tliat  great  change  in  religions  sentiment  which  distin- 
guishes the  times  of  IVEethodism  from  the  staid,  17onconforming 
era  of  V atts  and  Doddridge.”  * His  hymns  are  of  such  pure 
and  idomatic  English  that  their  style  can  never  become  obso- 
lete, unless  our  language  shall  become  thoroughly  corrupt ; 
their  sentiments  are  so  genuine,  not  only  to  Christianity  but 
humanity,  that  they  can  never  cease  to  command  the  response 
of  the  common  human  heart.  Ilis  services  to  Methodism  in 
tliis  respect  can  never  be  over-estimated.  A half  century 
since,  the  Methodist  hymns  were  sold  at  the  rate  of  sixty  thou- 
sand volumes  annually  in  England ; they  have  been  issued  at 
an  immensely  larger  rate  in  America.  Their  triumphant  mel- 
odies swell  farther  and  farther  over  the  world  every  year,  and 
their  influence,  moral  and  intellectual,  is  beyond  all  calculation. 

Wliile  they  have  been  of  inestimable  service  as  exponents  of 
Methodist  theolbgy  and  piety,  they  have  also  served  to  correct 
that  tendency  to  doggerel  verse  which  is  so  frequent  among  the 
common  people  in  seasons  of  strong  religious  excitement. 
Methodism  has  had  often  to  resist  this  tendency ; it  has  been 
able  to  do  so  chiefly  by  the  power  of  its  hymns ; they  are  so 
varied,  so  vivid,  and  so  simple,  that  they  hardly  leave  a motive 
for  the  use  of  any  other  lyric  compositions.  Justly  does  John 
Wesley  say,  in  his  preface  to  the  “Collection  for  the  Use  of 
the  People  called  Methodists,”  that  “ in  these  hymns  there  are 
no  doggerel,  no  botches,  nothing  put  in  to  patch  up  the  rhyme, 
no  feeble  expletives.  Here  is  nothing  turgid  or  bombastic  on 
the  one  hand,  or  low  and  creeping  on  the  other.  Here  are  no 
cant  expressions,  no  words  without  meaning.  Here  are  (allow 
me  to  say)  both  the  purity,  the  strength,  and  the  elegance  of 
the  English  language ; and,  at  the  same  time,  the  utmost  sim- 
plicity and  plainness,  suited  to  every  capacity.” 

While  giving  the  masses  divine  songs,  Wesley  also  endeavored 
to  make  them  sing.  He  was  continually  urging  his  preachers 
to  set  the  example,  and  not  only  exhort  the  people  to  follow  it, 

* Isaac  Taylor,  “Wesley  and  Methodism.” 


The  ay  ESLETAH  Lyric  Poetry. 


471 


but  to  induce  them  to  leam  the  science  of  music.  “Preach 
frequently  on  singing,”  he  said,  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Con- 
ference ; “ suit  the  tune  to  the  words ; ” “ do  not  suffer  the  peo- 
ple to  sing  too  slow ; ” “ let  the  women  sing  their  parts  alone ; 
let  no  man  sing  with  them  unless  he  understands  the  notes, 
and  sings  the  bass ; ” “ exhort  every  one  in  the  congregation  to 
sing ; in  every  large  society  let  them  learn  to  sing  ; recommend 
our  Time  Book  every-where.”  As  early  as  1742  he  issued  “A 
Collection  of  Tunes  set  to  Music,  as  sung  at  the  Foundery.” 
He  published  a small  work  on  “ The  Grounds  of  Yocal  Music.” 
Three  other  publications  followed  these,  at  intervals,  on  “ Sa- 
cred Harmony,”  adapted  to  “ the  voice,  harpsichord,  and  or- 
gan,” for  he  was  not  opposed  to  instrumental  music  in  divine 
worship ; though,  for  the  prevention  of  disputes  in  the  Socie- 
ties, he  directed  them  to  set  up  “ no  organ  anywhere  till  pro- 
posed in  the  Conference.”  It  was  not  long  before  he  could 
justly  boast  of  the  superiority  of  the  Methodist  singing  over 
that  of  the  Churches  of  the  Establishment : “ Their  solemn 
addi-esses  to  God,”  he  says,  “ are  not  interrupted  either  by  the 
formal  (brawl  of  a parish  clerk,  the  screaming  of  boys,  who 
bawl  out  what  they  neither  feel  nor  understand,  or  the  unsea- 
sonable and  unmeaning  impertinence  of  a voluntary  on  the 
organ.  When  it  is  seasonable  to  sing  praise  to  God,  they  do  it 
with  the  spirit  and  the  understanding  also  ; not  in  the  miserable, 
scandalous  doggerel  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  but  in  psalms 
and  hymns  which  are  both  sense  and  poetry,  such  as  would 
sooner  provoke  a critic  to  turn  Christian  than  a Christian  to 
turn  critic.  What  they  sing  is,  therefore,  a proper  continua- 
tion of  the  spiritual  and  reasonable  service ; being  selected  for 
that  end,  not  by  a poor  humdrum  wretch  who  can  scarcely  read 
what  he  drones  out  with  such  an  air  of  importance,  but  by  one 
who  knows  what  he  is  about ; not  by  a handful  of  wild,  una- 
wakened striplings,  but  by  a whole  serious  congregation ; and 
these  not  lolling  at  ease,  or  in  the  indecent  posture  of  sitting, 

drawling  out  one  word  after  another ; but  aU  standing  before 
30 


472 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Yolijme. 


God,  and  praising  him  lustily,  and  with  a good  courage.”  The 
Methodist  hymn  music  early  took  a high  form  of  emotional 
expression.  It  could  not  be  otherwise  Muth  a community  con- 
tinually stirred  by  religious  excitement ; it  was  also  a necessity 
of  the  rapturous  poetry  of  Charles  Wesley,  for  tame  or  com- 
monplace tunes  would  be  absurd  with  it.  Handel  found  in 
the  Methodist  hymns  a poetry  worthy  of  his  own  grand  genius, 
and  he  set  to  music  those  beginning  “ Sinners,  obey  the  gospel 
word!”  “O  Love  divine,  how  sweet  thou  art!”  “Rejoice! 
the  Lord  is  King.” 


WESLEYAN  HYMN  MUSIC. 


BEL  STEYEl^S,  in  this  volume,  has  alluded  to  what  "Wes- 


Ix.  ley  did  for  Church  music.  Eiis  influence  upon  it  was 
only  inferior  to  his  influence  upon  hymnology.  So  great  was 
it,  Stevens  writes,  that  Wesley  soon  could  justly  boast  of  the 
superiority  of  Methodist  singing  over  that  of  the  Establish- 
ment. Wesleyan  hymns  were  set  to  music  by  Handel,  and  by 
other  great  masters  of  the  tuneful  art.  Among  those  who  gave 
expression  to  them  in  music  were  Samuel,  the  youngest  son  of 
Charles  Wesley — the  great  lyric  poet  of  Methodism — and  at 
a more  recent  date  Samuel  Sebastian,  a son  of  the  former  and 
a grandson  of  the  latter.  Both  of  these  were  eminent  musical 
doctors  and  musicians  to  the  English  Court. 

In  the  Wesleyan  “Collection  of  Hymns,” — in  the  “Edition 
with  Tunes,” — are  a number  of  tunes  by  this  father  and 
son.  There  Charles’s  hymn,  “And  let  our  bodies  part,” 
is  sung  to  the  tune  “ Chichester,”  composed  by  his  son. 
Dr.  Samuel  Wesley;  and  there  his  hymn,  “Come,  O Thou 
Traveler  unknown,”  is  sung  to  the  tune  “Wrestling  Jacob,” 
composed  by  his  grandson,  the  late  Dr.  Samuel  Sebastian 
Wesley. 

But  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  write  an  essay  on  Methodist 
hymn  music.  We  have  written  what  we  have  solely  to  intro- 
duce the  letter  and  the  tunes  and  hymns  which  foUow.  The 
letter  was  written  by  Miss  Eliza  Wesley,  of  London — ^herself 
an  eminent  music  teacher — to*  the  Editor  of  The  Wesley 
Memoeial  Yolume,  in  compliance  with  his  request  to  furnish 
for  it  several  tunes  composed  by  her  distinguished  father,  and 
by  her  equally  distinguished  brother.  The  tunes  “Bristol” 


474 


The  Wesley  Memoetal  Voluivie. 


and  “ Bacli  ” are  by  ber  father.  The  former,  Miss  Wesley  has 
accompanied  with  the  hymn,  “ O Thou,  to  whose  all-searching 
sight,”  translated  from  the  German  of  Count  Zinzendorf*  by 
her  great  uncle  while  he  was  a missionary  in  Georgia;  the 
latter,  she  has  accommodated  to  one  of  her  grandfather’s 
hymns  for  watchnight,  beginning,  “ Thon  Judge  of  quick  and 
dead.”  The  tune  “ Celestia  ” is  by  her  late  gifted  brother. 
The  letter  and  the  tunes  are  as  follows  : 


62  LrvEEFOOL  Road,  Islington,  June  2,  1879. 

My  Dear  Sir  : — 

Our  good  friend  Mr.  Stevenson  conveyed  to  me  your 
kind  letter.  I have  had  sincere  pleasure  in  complying 
with  your  request,  and  thank  you  for  affording  me  the  oppor- 
tunity of  contributing  to  so  interesting  a work.  You  are, 
I hope,  already  in  possession  of  two  tunes,  “ Bristol  ” and 
“Bach.”  To  the  tune  “Bristol”  I would  suggest  the  words 
of  hymn,  “ O Thou  to  whose  all-searching  sight ; ” to  the 
tune  “Bach,”  “Thou  Judge  of  quick  and  dead.”  Should  you 
prefer  any  other  words,'  pray  feel  at  liberty  to  exchange  them ; 
both  tunes  require  solemn  words.  -The  tune  I now  forward, 
by  my  late  brother,  is  a cheerful  melody,  but  I cannot  find  an 
appropriate  meter,  and  have  requested  Mr.  Stevenson’s  kind 
assistance. 

With  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  your  work, 

I remain,  dear  sir,  yours  most  truly, 

Eliza  Wesley. 

To  Bev.  J.  O.  A.  Clark,  LL.D. 


* Mr.  George  J.  Stevenson,  M.A.,  in  his  “Methodist  Hymn  Book  and  its  Asso- 
ciations,” ascribes  this  hymn  to  Count  Zinzendorf ; in  the  “ Hymnal  ” of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  it  is  ascribed  to  Gerhard  Tersteegen ; in  “ Wesley’s 
Hymns  and  New  Supplement,”  the  Wesleyan  “Edition  with  Tunes,”  and  in  the 
“ Collection  of  Hymns,”  etc.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  it  is 
simply  said  to  be  “from  the  German,  translated  by  J.  Wesley,”  the  name  of  the 
German  poet  not  being  given. — Editor. 


Wesleyan  Hymn  Music. 


475 


BRISTOL.  L.M. 

Samuel  Wesley,  Mus.  Doc. 


' 1 

r' 

— 

~<^ 

0 

Thou,  to 

whose  all  - 

search  - 

sight 

The 

dark  - ness 

— T — 

v-f=— 1 

P — 1 

r 

Zb— 

i 



L_w 

L — ^ j J 

1— 

— 1 

?rz — :: ^ 

— 1 1 1 — ■ 

._'^4 

shin  - eth  as  the  light.  Search,  prove  my  heart,  it  pants  for 

b i - 

h 

Lj 1 

— ^ * 

Wash  out  its  stains,  refine  its  dross, 

Nail  my  affections  to  the  cross; 

Hallow  each  thought ; let  all  within 
Be  clean,  as  thou,  my  Lord,  art  clean. 

If  in  this  darksome  wild  I stray. 

Be  thou  my  light,  be  thou  my  way : 

No  foes,  no  violence  I fear. 

No  fraud,  while  thou,  my  God,  art  near. 

When  rising  floods  my  soul  o’erflow. 

When  sinks  my  heart  in  waves  of  woe, 

Jesus,  thy  timely  aid  impart, 

And  raise  my  head,  and  cheer  my  heart. 

Saviour,  where’er  thy  steps  I see. 

Dauntless,  untired,  I follow  thee ; 

0 let  thy  hand  support  me  stiU, 

And  lead  me  to  thy  holy  hill. 

If  rough  and  thorny  be  the  way. 

My  strength  proportion  to  my  day ; 

Till  toil,  and  grief,  and  pain  shall  cease. 
Where  all  is  calm,  and  joy,  and  peace. 

John  Wesley. 


476 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


BACH.  S.M. 

This  tone  is  not  published.  Copied  from  the  original  MS.  by  Miss  Eliza  Wsslsy. 


Samuel  'Wesley. 


Our  cautioned  souls  prepare 
For  that  tremendous  day, 

And  fill  us  now  with  watchful  care, 
And  stir  us  up  to  pray : 


To  pray,  and  wait  the  hour. 

That  awful  hour  unknown, 

'When,  robed  ip  majesty  and  power. 
Thou  shalt  from  heaven  come  down, 
The  immortal  Son  of  man. 

To  judge  the  human  race. 

With  all  thy  Father’s  dazzling  train, 
With  all  thy  glorious  grace. 

To  damp  our  earthly  joys. 

To’  increase  our  gracious  fears. 
Forever  let  the  archangel’s  voice 
Be  sounding  in  our  ears : 

The  solemn  midnight  cry, — 

Ye  dead,  the  Judge  is  come; 

Arise,  and  meet  him  in  the  sky. 

And  meet  your  instant  doom. 


0 may  we  all  be  found 
Obedient  to  thy  word. 

Attentive  to  the  trumpet’s  sound. 

And  looking  for  our  Lord. 

0 may  we  thus  insure 
A lot  among  the  blest ; 

And  watch  a moment  to  secure 
An  everlasting  rest. 

Charles  Wesley. 


Wesleyan  Htivin  Music. 


477 


Tune,  “CELESTIA.”  11,  10,  11,  10,  9,  11. 

By  the  late  S.  3.  "Wesley,  Mas.  Doc. 
Copied  and  presented  by  Miss  Eliza  Wesley  to  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


S *ji»  — ' w'  - |- 

an  - gels  of  light,  Sing  - ing  to  wel  - come  the  pilgrims  of  the  night. 


Onward  we  go,  for  still  we  hear  them  singing, 

“ Come,  weary  souls,  for  Jesus  bids  you  come ; ” 

And  through  the  dark,  its  echoes  sweetly  ringing. 

The  music  of  the  gospel  leads  us  home. 

Angels  of  Jesus,  etc. 

Ear,  far  away,  like  bells  at  evening  pealing. 

The  voice  of  Jesus  sounds  o’er  land  and  sea. 

And  laden  souls  by  thousands,  meekly  stealing. 

Kind  Shepherd,  turn  their  weary  steps  to  thee. 
Angels  of  Jesus,  etc. 

Rest  comes  at  length,  though  life  be  long  and  dreary ; 

The  day  must  dawn,  and  darksome  night  be  past ; 

All  journeys  end  in  welcome  to  the  weary. 

And  heaven,  the  heart’s  true  home,  will  come  at  last. 
Angels  of  Jesus,  etc. 

Angels,  sing  on  ! your  faithful  watches  keeping ; 

Sing  us  sweet  fragments  of  the  songs  above ; 

Till  morning’s  joy  shall  end  the  night  of  weeping. 

And  life’s  long  shadows  break  in  cloudless  love. 
Angels  of  Jesus,  etc. 


478 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


WRESTLING  JACOB. 


S.  S.  Wksley,  Mua.  Doc. 


* 1 » 0- 


-r 

Come,  O thou  Trav  - el  - e^  unknown, Whom  still  I hold,  hut  cannot  see ; 

I 


.m m S-n-J-rm ' ^ a—r» — J 


rH 1 1 

-J m ^ — 

p-J 1 1 -1-^ 

— 1 1 ! — 

'-5 d 

^•1 

My 

com  - pa  - ny 

be  - 

fore  is  gone. 

And  I 

am  left 

a • lone  with  thee: 

0—, 

^ 1 

1 

— • S- 

-S-| 

r n 

= — t— 

r 

-m 1* m 

r 1 — r — ^ — 

— t ^ 

|- 

1 1 1 

U ; |?_IJ 

V 

r-l  J ^ ^ 

r-l  -1 

-1 1 1— m 

^ 

~jrl  S 

" 1 

r 

1 1 _ 



-1 

* ^ V—  - 

With  thee  all  night  I mean  to  stay,  And  wrestle  till  the  break  of  day. 

^.•S  Iff — 

-r-  c — la  « 

1 . . 

Lj i 1 1 

T — r — 1—^ 

"*(— t — 

'-r 

1 

I need  not  tell  thee  who  I am, 

My  sin  and  misery  declare ; 

Thyself  hast  called  me  by  my  name, 
Look  on  thy  hands,  and  read  it  there: 
But  who,  I ask  thee,  who  art  thou  ? 

Tell  me  thy  name,  and  tell  me  now. 

In  vain  thou  struggles!  to  get  free, 

I never  will  unloose  my  hold: 

Art  thou  the  Man  that  died  for  me  ? 

The  secret  of  thy  love  unfold  : 
Wrestling,  I will  not  let  thee  go. 

Till  I thy  name,  thy  nature  know. 

Wilt  thou  not  yet  to  me  reveal 
Thy  ne  w,  unutterable  name  ? 

Tell  me,  I still  beseech  thee,  tell ; 

To  know  it  now  resolved  I am: 
Wrestling,  I will  not  let  thee  go. 

Till  I thy  name,  thy  nature  know. 


Wesleyan  Htivin  Music. 


479 


What  though  my  shrinking  flesh  complain, 

And  murmur  to  contend  So  long  ? 

I rise  superior  to  my  pain ; 

When  I am  weak,  then  I am  strong : 

And  when  my  all  of  strength  shall  fail, 

I shall  with  the  God-man  prevail. 

Yield  to  me  now,  for  I am  weak, 

But  confldent  in  self-despair; 

Speak  to  my  heart,  in  blessing  speak. 

Be  conquered  by  my  instant  prayer: 

Speak,  or  thou  never  hence  shalt  move. 

And  tell  me  if  thy  name  be  Love. 

’Tis  Love!  ’tis  Love!  thou  diedst  for  me! 

I hear  thy  whisper  in  my  heart ; 

The  morning  breaks,  the  shadows  flee  ; 

Pure,  universal  love  thou  art : 

To  me,  to  all,  thy  bowels  move  ; 

Thy  nature  and  thy  name  is  Love. 

My  prayer  hath  power  with  God ; the  grace 
Unspeakable  I now  receive ; 

Through  faith  I see  thee  face  to  face, 

I see  thee  face  to  face,  and  live ! 

In  vain  I have  not  wept  and  strove ; 

Thy  nature  and  thy  name  is  Love. 

I know  thee.  Saviour,  who  thou  art, 

Jesus,  the  feeble  sinner’s  Friend ; 

Nor  wilt  thou  with  the  night  depart. 

But  stay  and  love  me  to  the  end : 

Thy  mercies  never  shall  remove ; 

Thy  nature  and  thy  name  is  Love. 

The  Sun  of  righteousness  on  me 

Hath  rose  with  healing  in  his  wings : 

Withered  my  nature's  strength;  from  thee 
My  soul  its  life  and  succor  brings : 

My  help  is  all  laid  up  above ; 

Thy  nature  and  thy  name  is  Love. 

I 


480 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


Contented  now,  upon  my  thigh 
I halt,  till  life’s  short  journey  end ; 

All  helplessness,  all  weakness,  I 
On  thee  alone  for  strength  depend. 

Nor  have  I power  from  thee  to  move ; 

Thy  nature  and  thy  name  is  Love. 

Lame  as  I am,  I take  the  prey  ; 

Hell,  earth,  and  sin,  with  ease  o’ercome 
I leap  for  joy,  pursue  my  way. 

And  as  a bounding  hart  fly  home. 
Through  all  eternity  to  prove 
Thy  nature  and  thy  name  is  Love. 


WESLEY  AND  COKE. 


¥ESLEY  had,  from  among  the  clergy  of  the  Established 
Church,  two  ardeht  and  most  efficient  co-laborers,  the 
saintly  John  Fletcher  and  the  untiring  Thomas  Coke.  The 
former,  from  the  year  1757  to  the  time  of  his  death,  was  Wes- 
ley’s confidential  friend  and  counselor,  the  champion  of  his  theo- 
logical views,  and  an  example  of  hohness  never  excelled.  About 
twenty  years  after  EleteheEs  adhesion  to  Wesley,  toward  the 
close  of  his  illustrious  career,  Coke  became  the  most  active  and 
useful  of  his  fellow-laborers.  Wesley  used  to  call  him  his 
“ right  hand.”  In  1777  he  united  himself  to  Wesley,  attended 
the  Conference,  and  was  stationed  the  following^  year  in 
London,  where  he  had  a very  cordial  reception,  preached  to 
large  congregations,  and  had  many  seals  to  his  ministry. 

Thomas  Coke  was  born  at  Brecon,  Wales,  in  1747  ; became 
a gentleman  commoner  of  Jesus  College,  Oxford,  and  a year 
after  took  orders  in  the  Established  Church.  He  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Laws  in  1775.  The  curacy  of  South 
Petherton,  Somersetshire,  offered  itself  and  was  embraced  ; and 
was  the  field  of  his  clerical  ministrations  for  a few  years. 
But  having  meanwhile  been  brought  into  clearer  views  and  a 
deeper  experience  of  the  spiritual  life,  his  preaching  became 
more  earnest.  Presently  he  was  charged  with  being  a Meth- 
odist on  account  of  his  uncommon  zeal.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore he  was  excluded,  on  the  ground  of  his  Methodistic  procliv- 
ities, from  pulpit  and  parish.  This  led  him,  on  further 
inquiry  and  after  a personal  acquaintance  with  Wesley,  to 
tender  his  services  to  him,  and  join  in  the  great  evangelizing 
movement  Wesley  was  carrying  forward.  Into  this  move- 
ment Coke  threw  the  fervid  zeal  and  unwearying  activities  of 


482 


Tile  Wesley  Memoklyl  Volume. 


Ids  "Welsli  temperament.  In  1782  he  was  appointed  to  hold 
the  first  session  of  the  Irish  Conference  ; and  from  that  time 
he  almost  invariably  presided  in  that  Conference,  filling  the 
chair  with  honor  and  usefulness  for  nearly  thirty  years. 

Dr.  Coke  rendered  very  valuable  services  to  Wesley  in  the 
two  measures  wliich  gave  supreme  importance  to  the  English 
Conference  of  1784.  The  first  was  the  procurement  of  the 
enrollment  in  the  High  Court  of  Chancery  of  the  “ Deed  of 
Declaration,”  which  defined  and  gave  legal  existence  to  the 
Methodist  Conference.  By  this  measure  consistency  and  per- 
manence were  given  to  Methodism  in  Britain.  Dr.  Coke 
procured  the  legal  advice  according  to  which  the  Deed  was 
determined  upon ; and  drew  up,  with  legal  assistance,  the 
instrument,  without  which  the  Methodist  Societies,  after  the 
death  of  Wesley,  would  have  inevitably  fallen  into  the  condi- 
tion of  separate  and  rival  religious  communities,  and  speedily 
gone  into  decay.  It  is  very  probable  that  Dr.  Coke  suggested 
the  whole  arrangement. 

The  other  measure  determined  on  at  the  Conference  of  1784 
was  the  consolidation  of  the  American  Methodist  Societies  into 
the  state  of  a regular,  independent  Church.  The  historian  of 
Wesleyan  Methodism  says:  “There  is  scarcely  any  action 
which  occurred  in  the  long  and  eventful  life  of  the  founder 
of  Methodism  of  more  intrinsic  importance  than  that  which 
effected  this  great  object ; and  perhaps  not  one  which  has  been 
more  fiercely  and  foully  censured.  ...  If  Wesley  had  accom- 
plished nothing  in  the  whole  course  of  his  laborious  and  ex- 
tended life  but  the  organization  and  consolidation  of  Method- 
ism in  America,  he  would  be  entitled  to  the  highest  regards  as 
the  APOSTLE  OF  MODERN  TIMES.”  In  America  the  Methodist 
Societies  had  all  along  been  in  connection  with  Wesley.  They 
had  been  considered  g'wasf-members  of  the  English  Church, 
obtaining,  on  occasion,  the  privileges  of  the  sacraments  at  the 
hands  of  the  parish  clergymen.  But  at  the  close  of  the  W ar  of 
the  Eevolution  the  United  States  were  irrevocably  separated 


Wesley  ajstd  Coke. 


483 


from  the  mother  comitry ; the  Episcopalian  Establishment  was 
dissolved ; and  the  control  of  the  Bishop  of  London  ceased  in 
this  country. 

Ender  these  circumstances  an  urgent  appeal  was  sent  to 
Wesley  from  Francis  Asbnry,  who  was  the  principal  preacher 
among  the  Methodists  in  the  new  Republic,  entreating  him  to 
provide  some  mode  of  church  government  which  would  meet 
the  urgency  of  the  case.  Wesley  had  been  revolving  this 
important  matter  in  his  O'wn  mind.  He  had  counseled  with 
Fletcher,  Coke,  and  others  at  this  Leeds  Conference,  in  1784 ; 
and  it  was  agreed  that  it  was  highly  important  to  have  some 
one  sent  immediately  to  America,  so  that  the  sacraments  might 
be  duly  administered  in  the  Societies,  and  a permanent  polity 
be  settled.  In  point  of  fact,  the  moment  had  come  when 
Wesley  must  settle  the  question  whether  he,  as  the  founder, 
was  ready  to  take  the  responsibility  which  the  “ exigence  of 
necessity”  had  plainly  put  upon  him.  It  was  one  of  those 
critical  momenta  which  form  epochs  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity. Wesley  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  He  braved  the 
obloquy  which  he  well  knew  his  course  would  in  some  direc- 
tions incur.  His  noble  spirit  decided  in  favor  of  a magnan- 
imous policy.  He  gave  to  American  Methodism  his  own  ideal 
of  a Church.  He  established  for  it,  as  we  believe,  a complete  and 
independent  church  system,  with  the  episcopal  office  and  order. 

Wesley’s  views  had,  indeed,  been  long  settled  as  to  the 
jure  divino  theory  of  apostolical  succession.  As  far  back  as 
the  fourth  conference,  held  in  1747,  there  had  been  a discussion 
on  Church  polity,  the  result  of  which  was  set  forth  in  the  fol- 
lowing questions  and  answers  : — 

Ques.  Are  the  three  orders  of  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons, 
plainly  described  in  the  Hew  Testament? 

Ans.  We  think  they  are,  and  believe  they  generally  ob- 
tained in  the  Church  of  the  apostolic  age. 

Ques.  But  are  you  assured  that  God  designed  the  same  plan 
should  obtain  in  all  other  Churches,  throughout  all  ages  ? 


484 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


Am.  We  are  not  assured  of  it,  because  we  do  not  know  that 
it  is  asserted  in  Holy  Writ. 

Ques.  If  the  plan  were  essential  to  a Christian  Church, 
what  must  become  of  all  foreign  Reformed  Churches  ? 

Am.  It  would  follow,  they  are  no  part  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  a consequence  full  of  shocking  absurdity. 

Ques.  In  about  what  age  was  the  divine  right  of  episcopacy 
first  asserted  in  England  ? 

Am.  About  the  middle  of  Queen  Elizabeth’s  reign.  Till 
then  all  the  bishops  and  clergy  in  England  continually  allowed 
and  joined  in  the  ministrations  of  those  who  were  not  epis- 
copally  ordained. 

Ques.  Must  there  not  be  numberless  accidental  variations  in 
the  government  of  various  Churches  ? 

Am.  These  must  be,  in  the  natirre  of  things.  As  God 
variously  dispenses  his  gifts  of  nature,  providence,  and  grace, 
both  the  offices  themselves  and  the  officers  in  each  ought  to 
be  varied  from  time  to  time. 

This  shows  clearly  that  Wesley  had,  even  at  that  early 
period  of  his  career,  formed  the  convictions  which  governed  his 
subsequent  course.  There  being  no  particular  form  of  admin- 
istration made  binding  by  divine  prescription  in  Church  gov- 
ernment, the  application  of  a few  great  and  inviolable  princi- 
ples is  left  to  the  godly  discretion  of  those  who,  in  the  order  of 
the  divine  administration,  might  be  called  on  to  act  in  certain 
emergencies.  In  point  of  fact  W esley,  in  a sketch  of  the  Origin 
of  Church  Government,  drawn  up  about  that  time,  refers  to 
himself  as  the  father  and  bishop  of  the  whole  of  the  Method- 
ist Societies,  and  compares  his  “ assistants  ” to  the  ancient 
“ presbyters,”  and  his  “ helpers  ” to  the  ancient  “ deacons.” 
He  professed  himself  convinced  that  the  three  ministerial 
orders  of  bishops,  elders,  and  deacons  were  “reasonable  and 
useful  as  human-ecclesiastical  arrangements,”  though  he  denied 
that  they  were  obligatory  by  divine  law  and  institution. 

These  views  and  principles  are  clearly  and  strikingly ybrw'W- 


Wesley  and  Coke. 


485 


lated  by  the  learned  and  accomplished  Dr.  Summers,  editor  of 
the  “ Quarterly  Review  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South ; ” 

The  eldership  is  by  scriptural  precedent,  and  by  the  natural  course  of 
things  as  embodying  the  mass  of  the  mature  ministry,  the  main  body 
and  trunk  of  the  ministerial  strength  and  power.  As  such  it  is  naturally 
and  crudely  the  undeveloped  one  order.  Just  as,  naturally  and  by  sacred 
precedent  and  expediency,  it  reserves  the  diaconate  order  as  its  prepara- 
tory pupilage,  so  it  flowers  up  into  the  episcopacy  as  its  concentrated 
representative  order.  Fundamentally,  there  may  thus  be  one  order ; sub- 
sidiarily a second  order;  and  derivatively,  yet  superior  in  function,  a 
third  order.  The  ordership  and  organic  permanence  is  constituted  in  all 
three  cases,  according  to  sacred  precedent,  by  ordination.  The  highest 
of  the  three  orders  is  especially,  as  it  happens,  perpetuated  by  a series  of 
ordaining  hands,  passing  from  predecessor  to  successor,  bishop  authen- 
ticating bishop,  as  elder  does  not  authenticate  elder,  or  deacon,  deacon. 
Hence,  though  as  derivative  it  is  in  origin  less  an  order,  and  an  inferior 
order,  yet,  as  constituted,  it  becomes  more  distinctively  an  order  than 
either  of  the  other  two.  The  New  Testament  furnishes,  indeed,  no 
decisive  precedent  of  an  ordained  and  permanently  fixed  superpresby- 
terial  order ; but  it  does  furnish  classes  and  instances  of  men  exercising 
superpresby terial  authority ; so  that  pure  and  perfect  parity  of  office  is 
not  divinely  enjoined.  Such  classes  and  cases  are  the  apostles,  perhaps 
the  evangelists  St.  James  of  Jerusalem,  and  Timothy  and  Titus.  Wes- 
ley held  that  the  episcopate  and  eldership  were  so  one  order  that  the 
power  constituting  an  episcopal  order  inhered  in  the  eldership;  but  he 
did  not  believe  that  there  lay  in  the  eldership  a right  to  exercise  that 
power  without  a true  providential  and  divine  call.  Hence,  in  his  epis- 
copal diploma  given  to  Coke  he  announces,  “I,  John  Wesley,  thinlc  my- 
self fronidentially  called  at  this  time  to  set  apart  some  persons  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry  in  America,  ” etc. 

God  chooses  bis  agents  for  the  carrying  out  of  his  great  rnle 
to  bless  man  by  man.  He  authenticates  their  mission  by  gifts, 
spiritual  power,  and  sway  over  the  hearts  of  men.  Wesley  be- 
came the  instrument  in  the  divine  hand  of  a new  development 
of  Christianity.  His  position,  to  use  the  expression  of  Dr. 
James  Dixon,  “made  him  necessarily  the  patriarch  and  gov- 
ernor of  his  people  every-where.”  In  organization  and  admin- 


486 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


istrative  skill  no  general,  statesman,  or  dinrckman  ever  ex- 
celled him ; and  as  to  tlie  silent  energy  of  personal  influence, 
he  kas  never  been  surpassed  by  any  one  known  to  history. 
This  man  stood  at  the  point  whence  “ a new  beginning  of  reg- 
imen ” was  to  start.  Providence  placed  before  him  the  oppor- 
tunity to  establish  a church  system  which  was  to  carry  the 
Wesleyan  proclamation  of  the  gospel  not  only  over  the  breadth 
of  a continent  within  the  first  century  of  its  operations,  but  to 
Asia,  and  Africa,  and  the  palm-girt  islands  of  far-ofi  seas.  In 
God’s  name  let  him  go  forward  and  set  apart,  by  the  imposition 
of  hands,  the  elders  and  the  missionary  bishop  for  this  great 
work ! That  ordination,  if  Heaven  deign  to  own  it,  shall,  in  the 
name  of  religion,  humanity,  and  reason,  settle  the  question  be- 
tween mediaeval  church  theory,  with  its  formal  and  ritual 
episcopacy  and  papal  yoke  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the 
other,  a restored  primitive  episcopate,  with  its  regularly  organ- 
ized societies  of  godly  members,  self-governed,  under  Christ, 
and  in  accordance  with  his  word ; “ which,  challenging  for  all 
its  members  liberty  in  the  realm  of  lofty  thought,  and  provid- 
ing the  means  of  order  and  activity  in  the  walks  of  holy  love, 
refuses  to  own  authority  or  jurisdiction  based  on  any  relation 
beyond  itself.” 

And  thus  it  came  to  pass  that  at  Bristol,  on  the  first  of 
September,  1784,  Wesley,  aided  by  two  ordained  ministers  of 
the  English  Church,  set  apart,  according  to  the  ordinal  of  that 
Church,  Kichard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Yasey  as  deacons;  on 
the  next  day  he  ordained  them  elders.  Afterward,  assisted  by 
the  presbyters,  he  ordained  Thomas  Coke — as  we  claim — 
bishop,  calling  him,  however,  superintendent.  Coleridge,  in 
his  notes  on  Hooker,  makes  the  following  statement : “ Hooker 
was  so  good  a man  that  it  would  be  wicked  to  suspect  him  of 
knowingly  playing  the  sophist.  And  yet,  strange  it  is,  that  he 
should  not  have  been  aware  that  it  was  prelacy,  not  prunitive 
episcopacy — the  thing,  not  the  name — that  the  Reformers  con- 
tended against ; and  if  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  national 


WrsLET  AND  Coke. 


487 


clergy  were  (as  botli  parties  nnhappily  took  for  granted)  one 
and  tke  same,  contended  against  with  good  reason.  Knox’s 
ecclesiastical  polity  (worthy  of  Lycnrgus)  adopted  bishops 
under  a different  name ; or,  rather,  under  a translation  instead 
of  a corruption  of  the  name  e-rriaKonoi.  He  would  have  had 
superintendents.” 

Wesley’s  commission  of  Dr.  Thomas  Coke  is  as  follows : 

To  all  to  loTiom  these  Presents  shall  come:  John  Wesley,  late  Fellow  of  Lin- 
coln College  in  Oxford,  Preshyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  sendeth 
greeting : 

Whereas  many  of  the  people  in  the  Southern  Provinces  of  North 
America,  who  desire  to  continue  under  my  care,  and  still  adhere  to  the 
Doctrines  and  Discipline  of  the  Church  of  England,  are  greatly  distressed 
for  want  of  ministers  to  administer  the  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the 
Lord’s  Supper,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  said  Church : And  whereas 
there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  other  way  of  supplying  them  with 
ministers : 

Know  all  men  that  I,  John  Wesley,  think  myself  to  be  providentially 
called  at  this  time  to  set  apart  some  persons  for  tlie  work  of  the  ministry 
in  America.  And,  therefore,  under  the  protection  of  Almighty  God,  and 
with  a single  eye  to  his  glory,  I have  this  day  set  apart  as  a superin- 
tendent, by  the  imposition  of  my  hands  and  prayer,  (being  assisted  by 
other  ordained  ministers,)  Thomas  Coke,  Doctor  of  Civil  Law,  a Presby- 
ter of  the  Church  of  England,  and  a man  whom  I judge  to  he  well  qual- 
ified for  that  great  work.  And  I do  hereby  recommend  him  to  all  whom 
it  may  concern  as  a fit  person  to  preside  over  the  flock  of  Christ.  In 
testimony  whereof  I have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this  second  day 
of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 


. eighty-four. 


Wesley  immediately  sent  Coke  thus  commissioned,  and  the 
two  elders,  on  their  mission  to  America,  with  instructions  to 
organize  a Church,  and  to  ordain  Asbury  as  joint  superintend- 
ent. He  furnished  them,  also,  with  a “ Sunday  Service,”  or 
liturgy,  little  differing  from  that  of  the  Church  of  England ; a 


31 


488 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


collection  of  psalms  and  hymns,  and  also  the  “ Articles  of 
Religion.”  Upon  their  arrival  in  America  a special  Con- 
ference was  convened,  and  on  December  27th  sixty  traveling 
preachers  assembled  in  the  City  of  Baltimore.  Dr.  Coke  took 
the  chair,  and  presented  a letter  from  Wesley,  written  eight 
days  after  the  ordinations,  setting  forth  the  grounds  of  what  he 
had  done  and  advised.  After  the  consideration  of  this  letter  it 
M^as,  with  no  dissenting  voice,  regularly  and  formally  agreed  to 
form  a Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  making  the  episcopal 
office  elective,  and  the  superintendent  or  bishop  amenable  to 
the  body  of  ministers  and  preachers.  Asbury  refused  the  high 
office  to  which  Wesley  had  appointed  him  unless  it  was  ratified 
by  the  Conference.;  and,  in  accordance  with  the  act  of  organ- 
ization, both  he  and  Coke  were  formally  and  unanimously 
chosen  as  “ superintendents.”  On  the  second  day  of  the  session 
Asbury  was  ordained  deacon,  elder  on  the  third,  and  superin- 
tendent on  the  fourth ; Coke  being  assisted  by  Whatcoat  and 
Yasey,  and  also  by  Otterbein,  a personal  friend  of  Asbury  and 
a minister  in  the  German  Reformed  Church.  Twelve  preach- 
ers were  ordained  elders,  and  one  deacon. 

Thus  was  it  the  rare  fortune  of  Thomas  Coke  to  be  the 
honored  instrument  of  transmitting  from  the  illustrious  founder 
to  the  pioneer  bishop  that  church  system  in  the  institutions  of 
which  autonomy,  homogeneity,  and  strength  have  been  secured, 
together  with  the  conservation  of  all  the  cardinal  doctrines  of 
the  faith,  the  same  forms  of  worship  and  principles  of  dis- 
cipline, and  the  spring  of  a constant,  aggressive,  mighty  evan- 
gelization. Thomas  Coke  is  one  of  the  few  elect  names  enjoy- 
ing the  privilege  of  immortality. 

The  main  intention  of  Wesley  in  sending  Coke  to  America 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  and  as  we  believe,  to  originate  an  Epis- 
copal Church,  autonomous,  and  capable  of  perpetuating  itself 
as  well  as  working  its  own  machinery.  This  had  been  accom- 
plished by  the  ordination  of  deacons  and  elders,  and  of  Francis 
Asbury  as  bishop.  Coke  remained  in  the  United  States  until 


Wesley  and  Coke. 


489 


the  following  summer,  attending  with  Bishop  Asbury  the  ses- 
sions of  the  few  Annual  Conferences,  (there  were  six  in  1796,) 
and  traveling  extensively  through  the  country.  It  was  very 
competent  for  a man  of  Asbury’s  vigor  and  activity  to  do  the 
work  of  a bishop  at  that  early  day,  and,  consequently,  there 
was  no  urgent  necessity  that  Coke  should  remain  permanently. 
He  accordingly  returned  to  England.  He  made  afterward 
eight  visits  to  America,  bearing  the  expenses  of  these  voyages 
out  of  his  private  means.  At  the  General  Conference  of  1804 
permission  was  granted  Coke,  at  his  own  request,  to  return  to 
England,  subject  to  recall  if  his  episcopal  services  were  needed; 
and  at  the  subsequent  General  Conference  this  permission  was 
continued,  at  the  special  request  of  the  British  Conference. 
There  were  then  only  eight  Annual  Conferences  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  no  urgent  demand  for 
episcopal  service  beyond  what  was  at  the  command  of  the 
Church. 

When  in  England  Coke  was  the  soul  of  the  new  missionary 
enthusiasm  which  was  beginning  to  throb  in  the  Methodism  of 
the  opening  nineteenth  century.  He  traversed  England  and 
Scotland,  preaching,  and  soliciting  money  from  door  to  door 
for  the  missions  he  was  establishing  and  enlarging  in  Hova 
Scotia,  in  the  West  India  archipelago,  at  Gibraltar,  and  at 
Sierra  Leone,  besides  home  mission-fields  in  Wales,  and  in 
destitute  parts  of  England  and  Ireland.  To  this  home  depart- 
ment, in  1808,  thirty-five  missionaries  were  appointed.  They 
tell  of  a certain  captain  of  a man-of-war,  in  the  English  naval 
service,  on  whom  Coke  had  called,  introducing  flie  condition 
of  these  missions,  and  requesting,  very  politely,  a donation. 
This  he  received  gratefully,  and  retired.  The  captain,  who 
knew  nothing  of  Dr.  Coke,  in  conversation  with  a friend  some 
hours  afterward,  said,  “ Pray,  sir,  do  you  know  any  thing  of  a 
httle  fellow  who  calls  himself  Dr.  Coke,  and  who  is  going 
about  begging  money  for  missionaries  to  be  sent  among  the 
slaves  ? ” “I  know  him  weU,”  was  the  reply.  “ He  seems,” 


490 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yoltoie. 


rejoined  the^ captain,  “ to  be  a lieavenly-ininded  little  devil;  lie 
coaxed  me  out  of  two  guineas  this  morning.” 

Long,  however,  before  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  cent- 
ury, Coke  was  actively  engaged  in  foreign  mission  schemes,  as 
Coke’s  following  letter  to  Mr.  Fletcher,  which  was  accompan- 
ied by  his  “ Plan  ” for  carrying  the  gospel  to  the  “ heathens,” 
abundantly  shows : 

Neae  Plymouth,  Jariuary  6,  1784. 

My  VERT  DEAR  SiR ; — Lest  Mr.  Parker  should  neglect  to  send  you  one 
of  our  plans  for  the  establishing  of  foreign  missions,  I take  the  liberty  of 
doing  it.  Ten  snbscribei's  more,  of  two  guineas  per  annum,  have 
favored  me  with  their  names.  If  you  can  get  a few  subscribers  more, 
we  shall  be  obliged  to  you. 

We  have  now  a very  wonderful  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  in  the  west 
of  Cornwall.  I have  been  obliged  to  make  a winter  campaign  of  it,  and 
preach  here  and  there  out  of  doors. 

I beg  my  affectionate  respects  to  Mrs.  Fletcher. 

I entreat  you  to  pray  for  your  most  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 


A PLAN  OF  THE  SOCIETY  FOE  THE  ESTABLISHIMENT  OF 
MISSIONS  AMONG  THE  HEATHENS.* 

I.  Every  person  who  subscribes  two  guineas  yearly,  or  more,  is  to  be 
admitted  a member  of  the  Society. 

II.  A general  meeting  of  the  subscribers  shall  be  held  annually,  on 
the  last  Tuesday  in  January. 

III.  The  first  general  meeting  shall  be  held  on  the  last  Tuesday  in 
January,  1784,  at  No.  11,  in  West-street,  near  the  Seven  Dials,  London, 
at  three  o’clock  in  the  afternoon. 

IV.  At  every  general  meeting  a committee  of  seven,  or  more,  shall  be 
chosen  by  the  majority  of  the  subscribers,  to  transact  the  business  of 
the  Society  for  the  ensuing  year. 

V.  The  general  meeting  shall  receive  and  examine  the  accounts  of  tlie 

* The  original  of  this  document  and  of  Dr.  Coke’s  autograph  letter  to  Mr. 
Fletcher,  as  well  as  of  Wesley’s  commission  to  Dr.  Coke,  are  now  in  the  possession 
of  Mr.  Samuel  D.  Waddy,  Q.C.,  M.P.,  of  London.  Photo-lithographs  of  these  doc- 
uments Mr.  Waddy  gave  to  me  while  I was  in  London. — Editok. 


Wesley  and  Coke. 


491 


Committee  for  the  preceding  year,  of  all  sums  paid  to  the  use  of  the 
Society,  of  the  purposes  to  which  the  whole  or  any  part  thereof  shall 
haTe  been  applied,  and  also  the  report  of  all  they  have  done,  and  the 
advices  they  have  received. 

VI.  The  Committee,  or  the  majority  of  them,  shall  have  power,  first,  to 
call  in  the  sums  subscribed,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  to  receive  all  col- 
lections, legacies,  or  other  voluntary  contributions.  Secondly,  to  agree 
with  any  they  shall  approve,  who  may  oflhr  to  go  abroad,  either  as  mis- 
sionaries or  in  any  civil  employment.  Thirdly,  to  procure  tlie  best 
instruction  which  can  be  obtained  for  such  persons,  in  the  language  of 
the  country  for  which  they  are  intended,  before  they  go  abroad. 
Fourthly,  to  provide  for  their  expenses,  in  going  and  continuing  abroad, 
and  for  their  return  home,  after  such  time  and  under  such  circumstances 
as  may  be  thought  most  expedient.  Fifthly,  to  print  the  Scriptures,  or 
so  much  thereof  as  the  funds  of  the  Society  may  admit,  for  the  use  of  any 
heathen  country.  And,  sixthly,  to  do  every  other  act  which  to  them 
may  appear  necessary,  so  far  as  the  common  stock  of  the  Society  will 
allow,  for  carrying  the  design  of  the  Society  into  execution. 

VII.  The  Committee  shall  keep  an  account  of  the  subscribers’  names, 
and  all  sums  received  for  the  use  of  the  Society,  together  with  such  ex- 
tracts of  the  entries  of  their  proceedings  and  advices  as  may  show  those 
who  are  concerned  all  that  has  been  done  both  at  home  and  abroad; 
which  statement  shall  be  signed  by  at  least  three  of  the  Committee. 

VIII.  The  Committee  for  the  new  year  shall  send  a copy  of  the  report 
for  the  past  year,  to  all  the  members  of  the  Society  who  were  not  pres- 
ent at  the  preceding  General  Meeting,  and  (free  of  postage)  to  every 
clergyman,  minister,  or  other  person,  from  whom  any  collection,  legacy, 
or  other  benefaction  shall  have  been  received,  within  the  time  concern- 
ing which  the  report  is  made. 

IX.  The  Committee,  if  they  see  it  necessary,  shall  have  power  to 
choose  a secretary. 

X.  The  Committee  shall  at  no  time  have  any  claim  on  the  members 
of  the  Society,  for  any  sum  which  may  exceed  the  common  stock  of 
the  Society. 

N.  B. — Those  who  subscribe  before  the  first  general  meeting,  and  to 
whom  it  may  not  be  convenient  to  attend,  are  desired  to  favor  the  gen- 
eral meeting  by  letter  (according  to  the  above  direction)  with  any  im- 
portant remarks  which  may  occur  to  them  on  the  business,  that  the  sub- 
scribers present  may  be  assisted  as  far  as  possible,  in  settling  the  rules 
of  the  Society  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned. 


492 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


We  have  been  already  favored  with  the  names  of  the  following  sub- 


scribers, viz. : 

£ s.  d. 

Br.  Coke 2 2 0 

Eev.  Mr.  Simpson,  of  Macclesfield 2 2 0 

Eev.  Mr.  Bickerstaff,  of  Leicester 2 2 0 

Mr.  Rose,  of  Borking 2 2 0 

Mr.  Hortou,  of  London 2 2 0 

Mr.  Ryley,  of  London 2 2 0 

Mr.  Eiddsdale,  of  London 2 2 0 

Mr.  Jay,  of  London .2  2 0 

Mr.  Bewey,  of  London 2 2 0 

Mr.  Mandell,  of  Batt 2 2 0 

Mr.  Jaques,  of  Wallingford 2 2 0 

Mr.  Batting,  of  High  Wickham 2 2 0 

Mr.  John  Clarke,  of  Newport,  in  the  Isle 

of  Wight 2 2 0 


£ 8.  d. 

Miss  Eliza  Johnson,  of  Bristol 2 2 0 

Mr.  Barton,  of  the  Isle  of  Wight 2 2 0 

Mr.  Henry  Brooke,  of  Dublin 2 2 0 

Master  and  Miss  Blashford,  of  Dublin , 4 4 0 

Mrs.  Kirkover,  of  Dublin 2 2 0 

Mr.  Smith,  Russia  Merchant,  of  London,  5 5 0 

Mr.  D’Olier,  of  Dublin 2 2 0 

Mrs.  Smyth,  of  Dublin 2 2 0 

The  Eev.  Mr.  Fletcher,  of  Madeley 2 2 0 

Miss  Salmon 2 2 0 

Mr.  Houlton,  of  London,  an  occasional 

subscriber 10  10  0 

Mrs.  King,  of  Dublin 2 2 0 


66  8 0 


TO  ALL  THE  REAL  LOVERS  OF  MANKIND. 

The  present  institution  is  so  agreeable  to  the  finest  feelings  of  piety 
and  benevolence,  that  little  need  be  added  for  its  recommendation.  The 
candid  of  every  denomination  (even  those  who  are  entirely  unconnected 
with  the  Methodists,  and  are  determined  so  to  be)  will  acknowledge 
the  amazing  change  which  our  preaching  has  wrought  upon  the  ig- 
norant and  uncivilized,  at  least  throughout  these  nations ; and  they  will 
admit  that  the  spirit  of  a missionary  must  be  of  the  most  zealous,  most 
devoted,  and  self-denying  kind : nor  is  any  thing  more  required  to  consti- 
tute a missionary  for  the  heathen  nations,  than  good  sense,  integrity, 
great  piety,  and  amazing  zeal.  Men  possessing  all  these  qualifications 
in  a high  degree  we  have  among  us,  and  I doubt  not  but  some  of  these 
will  accept  of  the  arduous  undertaking,  not  counting  their  lives  dear,  if 
they  may  but  promote  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  the  present  and  eternal 
welfare  of  their  fellow-creatures.  And  we  trust  nothing  shall  be  want- 
ing, as  far  as  time,  strength,  and  abilities,  will  admit,  to  give  the  fullest 
and  highest  satisfaction  to  the  promoters  of  the  plan,  on  the  part  of 
Your  devoted  servants,  Thomas  Coke, 

Thomas  Parker. 

Those  who  are  willing  to  promote  the  institution  are  desired  to  send 
their  names,  places  of  abode,  and  sums  subscribed,  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Coke, 
in  London,  or  Thomas  Parker,  Esq.,  Barrister  at  Law,  in  York.* 

In  1805  Coke  was  married  to  a lady  eminent  for  piety  and 
liberality,  the  only  surviving  child  of  a wealthy  solicitor  of 

* Coke’s  “Plan”  shows  that  a Foreign  Missionary  Society  was  organized  by 
Coke  eight  years  before  the  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society  in  1792. 


Wesley  and  Coke. 


493 


Bradford,  who  had  bequeathed  her  an  ample  fortune.  This 
lady  sympathized  heartily  with  all  the  large  and  liberal  views 
of  her  husband ; and  plentiful  means  were  put  at  the  dis- 
posal of  this  noble-hearted  “ foreign  minister  ” of  Method- 
ism. The  missionary  work  went  on  enlarging  year  after  year, 
intrusted  almost  entirely  to  his  care. 

In  1806,  while  traveling  in  Cornwall,  Coke  obtained  from 
Colonel  Sandys,  a gentleman  who  had  served  twenty  years  in 
the  East  Indies,  much  information  with  respect  to  the  religious 
state  of  the  country,  and  the  prospects  of  Christian  missions 
there.  This  led  to  communication  with  Dr.  Buchanan,  who 
was  a relative  of  Colonel  Sandys,  and  who  gave  further  infor- 
mation. The  result  of  his  inquiries  led  to  an  application  to  the 
Conference,  in  1813,  for  leave  to  initiate  a mission  to  India. 
His  estimable  wife  had  died  two  years  and  a half  before  this. 

Dr.  Coke  was  now  in  his  sixty-seventh  year,  but  with  a zeal 
which  age  could  not  quench  or  obstructions  baffle.  With  a 
magnificence  of  moral  daring,  ever  forgetting  the  things  which 
were  behind,  like  a racer  in  full  course  and  nearing  the  goal, 
his  spirit  caught  inspiration  from  successes  already  won,  and 
from  the  prize  growing  luminous  before  the  eye  of  his  hope. 
He  saw  India,  the  populous  realm  where  idolatry  and  panthe- 
ism had  reigned  from  time  immemorial,  enlightened  by  the 
gospel ; its  foul  and  bloody  siiperstition  subverted  ; the  shrines 
of  its  idols  deserted — Domos  Ditis  vacuas  et  inania  regna. 

With  faith’s  vision  of  the  reign  of  the  Son  of  God  made 
wide  as  the  world,  the  heathen  his  inheritance,  and  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth  his  possession  ; ages  of  peace  gliding 
on,  and  the  earth  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  Coke 
longed  to  plant  a mission  in  Ceylon,  the  ancient  Taprobana ; 
an  island  that  seemed  to  be  the  key  to  a far-extending  line  of 
aggressive  missionary  operations  in  the  interior  of  India.  W ith 
these  feelings  he  proposed  his  plans  to  the  Conference.  There 
was  opposition.  Benson,  with  vehemence,  declared  that  “it 
would  be  the  ruin  of  Methodism.”  Some  thought  the  under- 


494 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


taking  too  arduous  for  liis  time  of  life ; some  thouglit  he 
could  not  be  spared  from  the  support  of  the  missions  already 
established ; others  spoke  of  the  embarrassed  financial  condi- 
tion of  the  Connection.  “Yet,”  says  the  historian,  “when 
the  doctor  detailed  the  providential  circumstances  which  led 
him  to  desire  the  establishment  of  this  mission,  the  favora- 
ble disposition  which  some  men  in  power  had  manifested  to- 
ward the  proposed  object,  the  reasons  which  led  him  to  visit 
the  eastern  regions  of  the  globe,  and  especially  when  he  pre- 
sented himself  and  six  other  preachers  who  were  prepared 
to  dare  all  the  dangers  of  the  enterprise,  and  added,  boldly 
and  generously,  that  if  the  Connection  could  not  consistently 
bear  the  expense  of  the  undertaking  he  was  prejjared,  out 
of  his  own  private  fortune,  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  out- 
fit to  the  extent  of  £6,000,  his  brethren  were  alike  amazed 
at  the  magnitude  of  the  work  and  the  manner  in  which  it  had 
been  laid  open  to  their  efforts ; and,  awed  into  acquiescence  by 
such  a splendid  example  of  devotion  and  generosity,  gave 
their  consent.  It  was,  therefore,  resolved,  ‘ That  the  Confer- 
ence authorizes  and  appoints  Dr.  Coke  to  undertake  a mission 
to  Ceylon  and  Java,  and  allows  him  to  take  with  him  six  mis- 
sionaries, exclusively  of  one  for  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.’  ” * 
It  may  be  questioned  whether  a grander  scene  was  ever 
wutnessed  in  the  deliberations  of  a Conference.  Grand 
old  captain!  Hever  shall  you  see  the  missionary  host  retreat, 
with  banners  furled  and  “ despair  their  dirge  1 ” 

The  voyage  of  the  missionaries  to  India  was  commenced 
January  2,  1814.  The  fleet  was  composed  of  eight  regular 
Indiamen  and  twenty  smaller  vessels,  under  the  convoy  of 
three  ships  of  war.  On  April  twentieth  they  rounded  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  On  May  second  Coke  complained  of  a 
little  indisposition.  On  the  morning  of  the  third  his  servant 
knocked  at  his  cabin  door ; receiving  no  reply  he  opened  it, 


Smith’s  “History  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,”  vol.  ii,  p.  641. 


Wesley  and  Coke. 


495 


and  entering,  found  the  mortal  remains  of  this  great  man  life- 
less and  cold  on  the  cabin  floor.  He  had  died  of  apoplexy. 
His  remains  were  committed  to  the  deep  with  all  solemnity,  Mr. 
Harvard,  one  of  the  missionaries,  reading  the  burial  service.* 

It  is  useless  to  attempt  to  fathom  the  inscrutable  provi- 
dence of  God.  The  life-work  of  Coke  was  accomplished. 
The  profound  sensation  awakened  by  the  unexpected  death 
of  the  leader  of  a great  religious  movement  on  Asia  was 
the  occasion  of  rousing  the  whole  Wesleyan  Church  to 
meet  the  emergency.  Certainly  no  man  since  Wesley’s  death, 
up  to  that  of  Coke,  had  exercised  an  influence  so  wide  and 
profound  on  all  Methodism.  Richard  Watson  says:  “The 
work  in  which  Dr.  Coke's  soul  had  so  greatly  delighted,  and 
in  the  prosecution  of  which  he  died,  seemed  to  derive  new 
interest  from  those  retrospections  to  which  the  contempla- 
tion of  his  life,  character,  and  labors  necessarily  led ; and  his 
loss,  while  it  dictated  the  necessity  of  the  exertions  of  the 
many  to  supply  the  efforts  of  one,  diffused  the  spirit  of  holy 
zeal  with  those  regrets  which  consecrated  his  memory.” 

Missionary  societies  were  formed  in  the  principal  cities  of 
England ; public  meetings  were  held ; a more  general  concern 
for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  was  awakened ; and  plans  . 
were  adopted  for  a permanent  and  enlarging  supply  of  money 
for  the  enlarging  fleld  of  foreign  missionary  operations.  In 
point  of  fact  there  has  never,  since  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
been  a period  richer  in  missionary  development  and  results 
than  that  which  has  elapsed  from  Dr.  Coke’s  death  to  the 
present  time. 

And  yet,  with  all  the  united  and  even  formidable  effort 
made  during  most  of  the  present  century,  little  more  has 
been  done  than  to  occupy  important  positions  and  multiply 


* WLen  Bishop  Asbury  heard  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Coke,  he  wrote  in  his  journal: 
“Dr.  Coke,  of  blessed  mind  and  soul,  of  the  third  branch  of  Oxonian  Methodists, 
a gentleman,  a scholar,  and  a bishop  to  us.  As  a minister  of  Christ,  in  zeal,  in 
labor,  and  in  services,  the  greatest  man  in  the  last  century.” — Editor. 


496 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


facilities  for  ultimate  and  entire  conquest.  IN’evertlieleBS,  as 
Harris  finely  puts  it : “ Tlie  unseen  is  greater  far  than  that 
which  appears.  The  missionary  has  been  planting  the  earth 
with  principles ; and  these  are  of  as  much  greater  value  than 
the  visible  benefits  which  they  have  already  produced  as  the 
tree  is  more  valuable  than  its  first  year’s  fruit.  He  who,  in  the 
strength  of  God,  conveys  a great  truth  to  a distant  region,  or 
puts  into  motion  a divine  principle,  has  performed  a work  of 
which  futurity  alone  can  disclose  the  benefits.” 

What  may  not  the  close  of  the  twentieth  century  witness  \ 
With  a firm  adherence  to  the  purpose  and  agencies  of  the  gos- 
pel amid  the  mighty  collisions  of  opinion  which  forbid  all  fur- 
ther stagnation — with  the  favor  of  a general  opinion  on  the  side 
of  missionary  operations,  and  the  world  open  to  the  two  great 
English-speaking  missionary  nations — with  a Bible  translated 
into  all  tongues,  and  the  British  and  American  Bible  Societies 
putting  the  book  thus  translated  into  universal  circulation  at 
the  minimum  cost — with  general,  cordial  Christian  co-opera- 
tion, contributing  diversified  facilities  and  varied  services — 
with  a native  ministry,  the  fruit  of  past  missionary  labors,  and 
a power  of  self-support  that  is  the  prophecy  of  rapid  increase 
as  well  as  the  groimd  of  stability — in  fine,  with  the  truth  of 
God,  the  unlimited  redemption  of  Christ,  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  force  of  prayer,  the  life  of  religion  enhanced 
in  the  experience,  sympathies,  benevolent  gifts,  and  activities 
of  Christendom,  the  providence  of  God  on  our  side,  and  the 
whole  Church  in  missionary  action,  what  may  not  our  sons 
and  successors  see  ? 

But  not  until  the  books  of  universal  history  are  opened  at 
the  last  day,  and  the  far-reaching  and  ultimate  results  of 
human  character  and  action  are  disclosed,  will  it  be  known  how 
much  the  nineteenth  century,  and  all  succeeding  centuries, 
down  to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time,  owe  to  two  men — • 
John  Wesley  and  Thomas  Coke. 


WESLEY  AND  ASBUEY. 


IF  I had  been  requested  to  write  a duograph  under  this  head- 
ing, for  a separate  publication,  I should  want  a much  larger 
space  than  can  be  afforded  in  this  Memorial  Volume.  In  that 
case  I should  have  had  to.  go  minutely  into  the  biography  of 
each  of  these  distinguished  men.  But  as  this  is  one  of  a series  of 
memorial  essays,  treating  of  ecumenical  Methodism,  my  duty 
seems  to  be  limited  to  a notice  of  Wesley  and  Asbury  as  the 
acknowledged  leaders  of  Methodism — the  former  in  Great 
Britain  and  its  dependencies,  and  the  latter  in  America.  This 
is  recognized  by  Wesley  himself.  In  a characteristic  letter  to 
Asbury,  dated  London,  September  20,  1788,  two  or  three 
years  before  Wesley’s  death,  and  four  years  after  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church  in  America  was  organized,  he  says : — 

There  is,  indeed,  a wide  difference  between  the  relation  wherein  you 
stand  to  the  Americans,  and  the  relation  wherein  I stand  to  all  the 
Methodists.  You  are  the  older  brother  of  the  American  Methodists ; I 
am,  under  God,  the  father  of  the  whole  family.  Therefore  I naturally 
care  for  you  all  in  a manner  no  other  j)erson  can  do.  Therefore  I,  in  a 
measure,  provide  for  you  all. 

At  that  very  time  Asbury  was  the  recognized  leader,  and 
destiued  to  be  the  father,  of  American  Methodism. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  note  the  points  of  resemblance  and 
difference  between  these  two  men  in  their  parentage  and 
family,  as  well  as  their  intellectual  and  moral  character  and 
attainments. 

John  Wesley  was  the  son  of  the  Eev.  Samuel  Wesley, 
rector  of  Epworth,  Lincolnshire,  where  he  was  born  June  17, 
1703.  His  father  was  a High-Churchman,  devout,  learned, 


498 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Votjtate. 


and  laborious,  a respectable  poet,  and  a prolific  antbor.  His 
mother,  Snsanna  Wesley,  was  a daughter  of  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Annesley,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  pious  of  the  Puritan 
divines,  who  transmitted  many  of  his  admirable  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart  to  his  daughter.  Her  superior  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find. 

Wesley’s  training,  in  childhood  at  home,  in  boyhood  at  the 
Charter  House,  in  early  manhood  at  Oxford,  was  thorough  ; 
and  his  acquirements  in  all  branches  of  science  and  literature 
then  taught  were  rare.  He  had  a mind  cajjable  of  mastering 
with  ease  every  subject  to  which  it  was  applied.  His  piety 
was  deep  and  earnest : at  first  it  was  tinctured  with  asceticism, 
but  it  gradually  expanded  into  a most  healthful,  cheerful. 
Catholic  character,  inferior  to  few,  if  any,  to  be  found  in  the 
annals  of  the  Church.  His  zeal  w'as  what  Charles  Wes- 
ley called  “ the  pure  flame  of  love.”  It  was  what  Charles 
has  also  called  a “ yearning  pity  for  mankind,”  a “ burning 
charity ; ” it  was  an  all-consuming  desire  to  promote  the 
glory  of  God,  like  that  which  induced  his  great  Exemplar  to 
say,  “ The  zeal  of  thy  house  hath  eaten  me  up.”  All  this 
qualified  Wesley  for  the  part  he  was  to  act  as  the  prime 
mover  in  the  great  religious  reformation  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Unless  a man  were  inspired,  as  were  the  apostles  and  evan- 
gelists, it  is  safe  to  say  that  he  could  not  be  “ master  of  the 
situation” — adequate  to  the  task  to  which  Wesley  was  called — 
if  he  had  not  Wesley’s  logical,  legislative  mind,  vast  stores  of 
information,  and  magnetic  power  over  those  who  were  brought 
under  his  influence. 

Look  at  the  men  wdio  have  figured  in  history,  then  look  at 
the  work  which  Wesley  wrought,  and  say  who  could  have  filled 
his  place.  The  man  is  not  to  be  found. 

“ His  life  was  gentle;  and  tlie  elements 
So  mixed  in  him,  that  nature  might  stand  up, 

And  say  to  all  the  world,  This  is  a man ! ” 


Wesley  and  Asbukt. 


499 


I am  not  writing  a eulogy  of  Jolin  Wesley;  that  is  not  my 
object.  I am  merely  stating  the  result  of  a more  than  ordinary 
study  of  Wesley’s  life  and  labors,  and  tbe  impression  be  bas 
made  upon  tbe  world ; and  tbis  is  my  conviction,  that  God 
raised  bim  up  and  endowed  bim  for  tbe  special  work  wbicb 
be  performed. 

Many  lives  of  Wesley  bave  been  written — tbe  best,  perhaps, 
is  that  unique  autobiography,  bis  journal,  wbicb  is  of  tran- 
scendent interest,  and  wbicb,  together  with  bis  letters,  ser- 
mons, and  other  works,  affords  us  ample  means  of  judging  of 
bis  character,  and  tbe  place  be  is  destined  to  fill  in  tbe  history 
of  tbe  Church. 

Francis  Asbury  was  one  of  Wesley’s  most  devoted  followers. 
He  imbibed  bis  spirit,  emulated  his  zeal,  and  was,  like  him, 
more  abundant  in  labors  than  any  other  man  of  bis  age.  But 
it  is  obvious  that  Asbury  could  not  have  performed  Wesley’s 
work;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  Wesley  could  not  bave 
performed  Asbury’s.  God  raised  up  and  glorified  tbe  latter 
for  bis  peculiar  work,  as  be  did  tbe  former  for  bis. 

Several  lives  and  sketches  of  Asbury  bave  been  written,  by 
far  tbe  best  being  that  of  Bishop  Wigbtman,  in  ‘‘  Biographical 
Sketches  of  Itinerant  Ministers.”  But  be  who  would  bave  a 
full  and  correct  view  of  Asbury’s  character  and  work  must 
read  bis  journal.  Tbis  is  a work  as  remarkable  as  Wesley’s, 
but  0,  bow  different ! It  is  simple,  inartistic,  repetitious  ; and 
its  crudeness  is  unrebeved  by  judicious  editing — of  which  be 
himself  complains  in  regard  to  tbe  portions  which  were  pub- 
bsbed  before  bis  death.  But  it  is  a faithful  record  of  bis  life 
and  times. 

I bave  been  favored  with  some  of  bis  autograph  letters, 
wbicb  bave  aided  me  in  forming  a judgment  of  bis  character. 
In  addition  to  tbis  I enjoyed  a personal  acquaintance  with  some 
of  tbe  fathers  and  mothers  of  tbe  Church  in  ISTew  York,  Phil- 
adelphia, Baltimore,  Washington,  Charleston,  etc.,  from  whom 
I derived  much  information  concerning  tbis  apostobc  man. 


500 


The  Wesley  Mejioeial  Volume. 


Fortunately,  Tre  have  from  his  own  pen  an  account  of  his 
parentage  and  early  life.  In  his  journal,  July  1792,  he  says : — 

I was  born  in  Old  England,  near  the  foot  of  Hampstead  Bridge,  in  the 
parish  of  Handsworth,  about  four  miles  from  Birmingham,  in  Stafford- 
shire, and,  according  to  the  best  of  my  after-knowledge,  on  the  20th  or 
21st  day  of  August,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1745. 

My  father’s  name  was  Joseph,  and  m'y  mother's  Elizabeth,  Asbiiry; 
they  were  people  in  common  life  ; were  remarkable  for  honesty  and  in- 
dustry, and  had  all  things  needful  to  enjoy.  Had  my  father  been  as  sav- 
ing as  laborious  he  might  have  been  wealthy.  As  it  was,  it  was  his 
province  to  be  employed  as  a farmer  and  gardener  by  the  two  I’ichest 
families  in  the  parish.  My  parents  had  but  two  children,  a daughter 
called  Sarah,  and  myself.  My  lovely  sister  died  in  infancy;  she  was  a 
favorite,  and  my  dear  mother,  being  very  affectionate,  sunk  into  deep 
distress  at  the  loss  of  a darling  child,  from  which  she  was  not  relieved 
for  many  years.  It  was  under  this  dispensation  that  God  was  pleased  to 
open  tlie  eyes  of  her  mind,  she  living  in  a very  dark,  dark,  dark  day 
and  place.  She  now  began  to  read  almost  constantly  when  leisure  pre- 
sented the  opportunity.  When  a child,  I thought  it  strange  my  mother 
should  stand  by  a large  window  poring  over  a book  for  hours  together. 
From  my  childhood,  I may  say,  I have  neither 

— dared  an  oath,  nor  hazarded  a lie. 

The  love  of  truth  is  not  natural,  but  the  habit  of  telling  it  I acquired 
very  early;  and  so  well  was  I taught,  that  my  conscience  would  never 
permit  me  to  swear  profanely.  I learned  from  my  parents  a certain  form 
of  words  for  prayer,  and  I well  remember  my  mother  strongly  urged  my 
father  to  family  reading  and  prayer ; the  singing  of  psalms  was  much 
practiced  by  them  both.  My  foible  was  the  ordinary  foible  of  children — 
fondness  for  play;  but  I abhorred  mischief  and  wickedness,  although  my 
mates  were  among  the  vilest  of  the  vile  for  lying,  swearing,  fighting, 
and  whatever  else  boys  of  their  age  and  evil  habits  were  likely  to  be 
guilty  of ; from  such  society  I very  often  returned  home  uneasy  and  mel- 
ancholy; and  although  driven  away  by  my  better  principles,  still  I 
would  return,  hoping  to  find  happiness  where  I never  found  it.  Some- 
times I was  much  ridiculed,  and  called  “Methodist  parson,”  because  my 
mother  invited  any  people  who  had  the  appearance  of  religion  to  her 
house. 

I was  sent  to  school  early,  and  began  to  read  the  Bible  between  six 


ESLEY  AA^D  AsBURT. 


501 


and  seven  years  of  age,  and  greatly  delighted  in  the  historical  part  of  it. 
My  school-master  was  a great  churl,  and  used  to  beat  me  cruelly ; this 
drove  me  to  prayer,  and  it  appeared  to  me  that  God  was  near  to  me. 
My  father,  having  but  the  one  son,  greatly  desired  to  keep  me  at 
school,  he  cared  not  how  long;  but  in  this  design  he  was  disappointed; 
for  my  rhaster,  by  his  severity,  had  filled  me  with  such  horrible  dread, 
that  with  me  any  thing  was  preferable  to  going  to  school.  I lived  some 
time  in  one  of  the  wealthiest  an'd  most  ungodly  families  we  had  in  the 
parish  ; here  I became  vain,  but  not  openly  wicked.  Some  months  after 
this  I returned  home,  and  made  my  choice,  when  about  thirteen  years 
and  a half  old,  to  learn  a branch  of  business,  at  which  I wrought  about 
six  years  and  a half.  During  this  time  I enjoyed  great  liberty,  and  in 
the  family  was  treated  more  like  a son  or  an  equal  than  an  apprentice. 

Soon  after  I entered  on  that  business  God  sent  a pious  man,  not  a 
Methodist,  into  our  neighborhood,  and  my  mother  invited  him  to  our 
house.  By  his  conversation  and  prayers  I was  awakened  before  I was 
fourteen  years  of  age.  It  was  now  easy  and  pleasing  to  leave  my  com- 
pany, and  I began  to  pray  morning  and  evening,  being  drawn  by  the 
cords  of  love  as  with  the  bands  of  a man.  I soon  left  our  blind  priest 
and  went  to  West-Bromwich  Church  : there  I heard  Ryland,  Stilling- 
fleet,  Talbot,  Bagnall,  Mansfield,  Haweis,  and  Venn — great  names,  and 
esteemed  gospel  ministers.  I became  very  serious,  reading  a great  deal 
■Whitefield’s  and  Cennick’s  sermons,  and  every  good  book  I could  meet 
with.  It  was  not  long  before  I began  to  inquire  of  my  mother  Who, 
Where,  What,  were  the  Methodists.  She  gave  me  a favorable  account, 
and  directed  me  to  a person  that  could  take  me  to  Wednesbury  to  hear 
them.  I soon  found  this  was  not  the  Churcli,  but  it  was  better.  The 
people  were  so  devout — men  and  women  kneeling  down — saying  Amen. 
Now,  behold!  they  were  singing  hymns — svveet  sound!  Why,  strauge 
to  tell,  the  preacher  had  no  prayer-book,  and  yet  he  prayed  wonderfully! 
"What  was  yet  more  extraordinary,  the  man  took  his  text  and  had  no 
sermon-book.  Thought  I,  This  is  wonderful,  indeed.  It  is  certainly  a 
strange  way,  but  the  best  way.  He  talked  about  confidence,  assurance, 
etc.,  of  which  all  my  flights  and  hopes  fell  short.  I had  no  deep  con- 
victions, nor  had  I committed  any  deep,  known  sins.  At  one  sermon, 
some  time  after,  my  companion  was  powerfully  wrought  on ; I was  ex- 
ceedingly grieved  that  I could  not  weep  like  him;  yet  I knew  myself  to 
be  in  a state  of  unbelief.  On  a certain  time,  when  we  were  praying  in 
my  father’s  barn,  I believed  the  Lord  pardoned  my  sins  and  justified  my 
soul;  but  my  companion  reasoned  me  out  of  this  belief,  saying,  “Mr. 


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Mnther  said  a believer  was  as  happ}'  as  if  he  was  in  heaven.”  I thought 
I was  not  as  liappy  as  I would  be  there,  and  gave  up  my  confidence,  and 
that  for  months;  yet  I was  happy,  free  from  guilt  and  fear,  and  had 
power  over  sin,  and  felt  great  inward  joy.  After  tliis,  we  met  for  read- 
ing and  prayer,  and  had  large  and  good  meetings,  and  were  much  perse- 
cuted, until  the  persons  at  whose  houses  we  held  them  were  afraid,  and 
tliey  were  discontinued.  I then  held  meetings  frequently  at  my  father’s 
house,  exhorting  the  people  there,  as  also  at  Sutton  Colefield,  and 
several  souls  professed  to  find  peace  through  my  labors.  I met  class 
awliile  at  Bromwich-Heath,  and  met  in  band  at  Wednesbury.  I had 
preached  some  months  before  I publicly  preached  in  the  Methodist  meet- 
ing-houses; when  my  labors  became  more  public  and  extensive,  some 
were  amazed,  not  knowing  how  I had  exercised  elsewhere.  Behold  me 
now,  a local  2ireacher!  the  humble  and  willing  servant  of  any  and  of 
every  p)reacher  that  called  on  me  by  night  or  by  day;  being  ready,  with 
hasty  stejjs,  to  go  far  and  wide  to  do  good,  visiting  Derbyshire,  Stafford- 
shire, Warwickshire,  Worcestershire,  and,  indeed,  almost  every  place 
within  my  reach,  for  the  sake  of  precious  souls ; preaching,  generally, 
three,  four,  and  five  times  a week,  and  at  the  same  time  pursuing  my 
calling.  I think  when  I was  between  twenty-one  and  twenty-two  years 
of  age  I gave  myself  up  to  God  and  his  work,  after  acting  as  a local 
preacher  near  the  space  of  five  years;  it  is  now  the  19th  of  July,  1792. 
I have  been  laboring  for  God  and  souls  about  thirty  years,  or  upward. 

Sometime  after  I had  obtained  a clear  witness  of  my  acce23tance  with 
God,  the  Lord  showed  me,  in  the  heat  of  youth  and  youthful  blood,  the 
evil  of  my  heart;  for  a sliort  time  I enjoyed,  as  I thought,  the  23ure  and 
perfect  love  of  God ; but  this  hap23y  frame  did  not  long  continue,  al- 
though, at  seasons,  I was  greatly  blessed.  While  I was  a traveling 
preacher  in  England  I was  much  tempted,  finding  myself  exceedingly 
ignorant  of  almost  every  thing  a minister  of  the  gospel  ought  to  know. 
How  I came  to  America,  and  the  events  which  have  happened  since,  my 
journal  will  show% 

From  other  sources  we  learn  that  “ the  branch  of  business 
at  which  he  wrought  ” was  the  making  of  “ bnckle-chapes.” 

Asbnry’s  early  associations  were  not,  like  Wesley’s,  among 
gentlemen,  scholars,  and  divines ; bnt  they  were  such  as  emi- 
nently fitted  him  for  the  work  to  which  he  was  subsequently 
called,  and  which  he  so  well  performed. 

It  is  difficult  to  settle  the  terminus  a quooi  Wesleyan  Meth- 


"VYeslet  and  Asbury. 


503 


odism.  "Wesley  himself  did  not  settle  it.  In  Kqyember,  1729, 
Tvliile  at  Oxford,  he  and  his  brother,  and  Messrs.^Morgan  and 
Kirkman,  formed  a society  for  their  own  spiritual  improve- 
ment. The  wits  of  Oxford  dubbed  it  with  the  old  nickname 
of  “Methodist,”  and  ridiculed  John  Wesley  as  “ the  father  of 
the  Holy  Clrrb.”  Hervey,  Ingham,  and  a few  others  joined 
this  society ; but  it  was  soon  dissolved.  In  1739  a society  was 
organized  by  Wesley  in  London  ; this  is  considered  the  nucleus 
of  “the  United  Society,”  which  was  developed  into  the  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  its  dependencies, 
and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  which  was 
organized  by  Wesley’s  direction  in  178-1,  nearly  seven  years 
before  his  death. 

The  work  which  Wesley  accomplished  is  simply  stupendous. 
I shall  not  here  attempt  to  review  it  or  describe  it.  I shall  not 
even  refer  to  the  records  of  it  in  his  journal — his  epitaph  at 
City  Hoad,  his  memorial  tablet  in  Westminster  Abbey,  or  the 
Wesley  Monumental  Church  in  Savannah — -if  you  want  to  see 
it,  Circumspice  ! ” 

The  labors  of  Asbury  are  not  so  well  knoAvn  as  those  of 
Wesley — even  in  America;  yet  we  are  safe  in  afih’ming  that 
for  half  a century  they  were  as  incessant,  and,  in  their  sphere, 
as  important  and  fruitful  as  those  of  his  illustrious  exemplar. 

In  August,  1771,  Asbury  offered  himself  at  the  British  Con- 
ference as  a missionary  to  America,  and  was  accepted  by  Wes- 
ley. He  “ had  not  one  penny  of  money  ” when  he  joined  his 
colleague,  Richard  Wright,  in  Bristol,  after  taking  leave  of  his 
parents  and  other  friends,  preparatory  to  his  embarkation. 
Friends  furnished  him  with  clothes  and  £10.  They  embarked 
September  2,  and  reached  Philadelphia  October  27.  I remem- 
ber a trustworthy  tradition  which  I heard  over  forty  years  ago, 
that  when  he  landed  he  exclaimed,  “ This  is  the  coiintry  for 
me ; here  I shall  end  my  days  ! ” A sentiment  of  this  sort  fre- 
quently speaks  out  in  his  journal. 

He  felt  that  he  had  a divine  call  to  America,  and  he  became 
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intensely  American  ; hence  when  other  British  missionaries  re- 
turned to  England,  at  the  time  of  the  Bevolution,  the  thought 
of  doing  so  never  entered  his  head.  This  will  explain  several 
passages  in  his  history. 

Asbury  entered  immediately  and  earnestly  on  the  great  work 
which  he  had  undertaken ; and  as  he  gave  proof  of  his  great 
executive  ability,  the  next  year  Wesley  appointed  him  his  gen- 
eral assistant ; that  is,  he  invested  him  with  power  to  supervise 
all  the  Societies  and  preachers  in  America.  This  is  modestly 
noted  in  his  journal,  September  10,  1772 : — 

. I received  u letter  from  Mr.  Wesley,  in  which  he  required  a strict  at- 
tention to  discipline,  and  appointed  me  to  act  as  his  assistant. 

In  1773  Wesley  sent  over  two  more  missionaries,  Messrs. 
Rankin  and  Shadford  ; and  as  Rankin  was  Asbury’s  senior, 
he  superseded  him  as  “ general  assistant.”  It  is  gi-atifying  to 
see  with  what  pleasure  Asbury  resigned  the  superintendency 
to  Rankin.  In  his  journal,  June  3,  1773,  he  says : — 

To  my  great  comfort  arrived  Mr.  R.,  Mr.  S.,  Mr.  Y.,  and  Captain  W. 
Mr.  R.  preached  a good  sermon.  He  will  not  be  admired  as  a preacher, 
but  as  a disciplinarian  he  will  fill  his  place. 

Elsewhere  he  writes  : — 

Mr.  R.  dispensed  the  word  of  truth  with  power.  On  my  return  to 
New  York  I found  Mr.  R.  had  been  well  employed  in  settling  matters 
pertaining  to  the  Society. 

It  is  very  clear,  however,  that  Rankin  was  not,  for  the  times, 
the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  He  was  a Scotchman — 
British  to  the  backbone — a rigid  disciplinarian — and  he  gave 
offense  to  the  preachers  and  people. 

Eor  three  or  four  years  during  the  Revolutionary  war  As- 
bury was  forced  to  comparative  retirement.  In  his  journal, 
April  11,  1778,  he  says  : — 

The  reason  of  this  retirement  was  as  follows;  From  March  10,  1778, 
on  conscientious  principles  I was  a non-juror,  and  could  not  preach  in 


Wesley  and  Asbuet. 


505 


the  State  of  Maryland,  and  therefore  -withdrew  to  the  Delaware  State, 
where  the  clergy  were  not  required  to  take  the  State  oath ; though  with 
a clear  conscience  I could  have  taken  the  oath  of  the  Delaware  State, 
had  it  been  required;  and  would  have  done  it,  had  I not  been  prevented 
by  a tender  fear  of  hurting  the  scrupulous  consciences  of  others. 

April  24,  1T80,  he  says  : — 

Eode  to  Baltimore,  and  my  friends  were  much  rejoiced  to  see  me; 
but  silence  broke  my  heart.  The  act  against  non-jurors  reduced  me  to 
silence,  because  the  oath  of  fidelity  required  by  the  act  of  the  State  of 
Maryland  was  preposterously  rigid.  I became  a citizen  of  Delaware, 
and  was  regularly  returned.  I was  at  this  time  under  recommendation 
of  the  Governor  of  Delaware  as  taxable. 

He,  however,  met  the  Conference  in  Baltimore,  (the  25th,) 
and  “ preached  (the  26th)  on  Acts  vi,  4,  with  liberty.” 

Some  of  the  Methodists  in  Yirginia — their  hearts  being 
made  sick  by  hope  deferred — had  ordained  certain  preachers 
to  administer  the  ordinances.  We  do  not  wonder  at  this,  and 
are  not  disposed  to  censure  them  for  so  doing.  But  perhaps  it 
was  inexpedient.  In  his  journal,  April  25,  Asbury  says  : 

Our  Conference  met  in  peace  and  love.  We  settled  all  our  northern 
stations;  then  we  began  in  much  debate  about  the  letter  sent  from  Vir- 
ginia. We  first  concluded  to  renounce  them;  then  I oflfered  conditions 
of  union : — 

1.  That  they  should  ordain  no  more;  2.  That  they  should  come  no 
farther  than  Hanover  Circuit;  3.  We  would  have  our  delegates  in  their 
conference ; 4.  That  they  should  not  presume  to  administer  the  ordi- 
nances where  there  is  a decent  Episcopal  minister ; 5.  To  have  a union 
conference. 

These  would  not  do,  as  we  found  upon  long  debate;  and  we  came 
back  to  our  determinations,  although  it  was  like  death  to  think  of 
parting.  At  last  a thought  struck  my  mind ; to  propose  a suspension  of 
the  ordinances  for  one  year,  and  so  cancel  all  our  grievances  and  be  one. 
It  was  agreed  on  both  sides,  and  Philip  Gatch  and  Reuben  Ellis,  who 
had  been  yerj  stiff,  came  into  it,  and  thought  it  would  do. 

The  expedient  was  adopted,  and  the  result  exceeded  their 
sanguine  expectations.  Surely  the  Methodists  could  not  be 


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severely  censured  for  desiring  tlieir  own  preachers  to  give 
them  the  ordinances. 

Mr.  W esley  said : “ I still  believe  the  episcopal  form  of 
chui'ch  government  to  be  scriptural  and  apostolical — I mean, 
well  agreeing  with  the  practice  and  writings  of  the  apostles. 
But  that  it  is  jprescrihed  in  Scripture  I do  not  believe.  This 
opinion,  which  I once  zealously  expressed,  I have  been  heartily 
ashamed  of  ever  since  I read  Bishop  Stillingfleet’s  Irenicon. ' 
I think  he  has  unanswerably  proved,  that  neither  Christ  nor 
his  apostles  prescribe  any  particular  form  of  church  govern- 
ment ; and  that  the  plea  of  divine  right  for  diocesan  episcopacy 
was  never  heard  of  in  the  primitive  Church.”  When  pressed 
concerning  his  “ acting  as  a bishop,”  he  defended  it  by  sajdng : 
“ I firmly  believe  that  I am  a scriptural  episicojpos,  as  much  as 
any  other  man  in  England  or  in  Europe.  For  the  uninter- 
rujoted  succession  I know  to  be  a fable,  which  no  man  ever  did 
or  can  prove.” 

Wesley,  indeed,  still  held  that  none  should  administer  the 
sacraments  who  had  not  been  ordained  by  the  imposition  of  the 
hands  of  prelate  or  presbyter ; but  he  furnished  no  proof  of  a 
position  which  was  the  last  relic  of  his  High-Church  ti-aining. 

His  successors  in  the  Methodist  ministry,  for  years  after  his 
death,  did  set  apart  men,  without  any  imposition  of  hands,  to 
administer  the  ordinances ; and  when  they  adopted  their 
appropriate  ceremony  of  ordination,  those  who  laid  hands  on 
others  never  had  hands  laid  on  them — unless  there  chanced  to 
be  one  or  more  who  had  been  so  ordained — as  when  Bishop 
Soule,  in  1842,  assisted  in  the  ordinations  of  the  British 
Conference. 

In  a pastoral  address  the  British  Conference  affirmed  that 
the  power  to  administer  the  sacraments  is  a sequence  to  the  call 
to  preach — not  denying,  that  for  prudential  reasons  the  ex- 
ercise of  it  might  be  restricted  to  those  of  a particular  rank  in 
the  ministry.  The  Conference  might  have  gone  further  than 
that : it  might  have  affirmed  that,  as  preaching  is  the  highest 


"Wesley  and  Asbuky. 


507 


and  most  important  ministei^^al  work,  the  power  to  administer 
tlie  ordinances  might  go  along  with  it.  The  New  Testament 
nowhere  restricts  baptizing  to  ministers  of  the  word,  but  it 
seems  to  intimate  that  it  is  subordinate  to  preaching,  and  was 
sometimes  performed  by  men  who  were  not  in  the  ministry. 
Comp.  Acts  X ; 1 Cor.  i.  And  there  is  not  a syllable  in  the 
New  Testament  about  the  administrator  of  the  other  sacrament. 

The  validity  of  lay  baptism  has  been  recognized  by  the 
highest  authorities  of  the  Church,  and  it  has  obtained  in  every 
age.  For  the  sake  of  regularity  it  is  expedient  to  restrict  the 
administration  of  the  ordinances  to  the  ministers  of  the  word, 
as  is  done  in  nearly  all  Churches.  The  Yirginia  Methodists 
did  that ; but  they  did  not  wait  for  prelatical  or  presbyterial 
authority  to  set  the  preachers  apart  to  this  work  by  the  impo- 
sition of  hands.  In  this,  as  we  have  seen,  they  were  imitated 
by  the  British  Methodists. 

When  we  reflect  seriously  on  the  circumstances  in  which 
the  Churches  were  placed,  we  feel  prompted  to  approve  of 
what  they  did,  rather  than  to  censure  it.  I apprehend  that  if 
I had  been  living  among  them  I should  have  done  as  the  Vir- 
ginia brethren  did ; and  yet  it  was  well  that  they  acceded  to 
the  prudent  proposal  of  Bishop  Asbury,  and  for  twelve  months 
suspended  the  exercise  of  what  they  considered  an  undoubted 
right. 

It  was  naturally  asked.  Are  the  Methodists  to  become  Quak- 
ers ? What  are  they  to  do  ? They  cannot  beg  the  ordinances 
from  New  England  Congregationahsts,  or  Presbyterians, 
whether  Dutch,  German,  French,  or  Scotch,  in  the  Middle 
States,  or  Anglicans  in  the  South,  or  Baptists  anywhere. 
The  Virginia  Methodists  were  decided  Arminians,  pronounced 
Episcopalians,  whole-souled  Methodists — and  as  such  were  gen- 
erally denounced  as  heretics  and  schismatics,  and  despised  as 
ignorant  fanatics.  Nine  tenths  of  them  were  willing  to  occupy 
the  humble  position  of  members  of  a society  in  communion 
with  the  Anglican  Church,  and  to  receive  the  ordinances  from 


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the  ministers  of  that  Establishment ; but  Episcopal  ministers 
in  Virginia  were  then  few  and  far  between,  and,  according  to 
the  testimony  of  Mr.  Jarrett,  (who  was  one  of  them,)  nearly 
all  of  them  were  strangers  to  vital  godliness,  if  they  were  not 
openly  wicked. 

The  more  we  think  on  this  subject  the  more  do  we  wonder 
at  the  moderation  and  patience  of  the  Virginia  Methodists, 
and  admire  their  reverential  and  filial  regard  for  Asbury  as 
the  general  assistant  of  Mr.  Wesley  in  America.  But  the 
hand  of  God  was  in  all  this. 

In  1783  the  war  of  the  Revolution  ended,  peace  was  pro- 
claimed, and  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  London  ceased 
to  exist  in  America.  There  was  no  longer  an  Episcopal 
Church,  with  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons,  in  the  United 
States.  Then  came  relief.  How  it  came  is  thus  naively  stated 
by  Asbury,  in  his  journal  — 

Sunday,  Nov.  15. — I came  to  Barratt’s  Chapel;  here,  to  my  great  joy, 
I met  those  dear  men  of  God,  Ur.  Coke  and  Richard  Whatcoat;  we 
were  greatly  comforted  together.  The  doctor  preached  on  “ Christ  our 
wdsdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption.”  Having  had 
no  opportunity  of  conversing  with  them  before  public  worship,  I was 
greatly  surprised  to  see  Brother  Whatcoat  assist  by  taking  the  cup  in 
the  administration  of  the  sacrament.  I was  shocked  when  first  informed 
of  the  intention  of  these  my  brethren  in  coming  to  this  country : it  may  be 
of  God.  My  answer  then  was.  If  the  preachers  unanimously  choose  me 
I shall  not  act  in  the  capacity  I have  hitherto  done  by  Mr.  Wesley’s  ap- 
pointment. The  design  of  organizing  the  Methodists  into  an  independ- 
ent Episcopal  Church  was  opened  to  the  preachers  present,  and  it  was 
agreed  to  call  a General  Conference  to  meet  at  Baltimore  the  ensuing 
Christmas ; and  also  that  Brother  Garrettson  go  off  to  Virginia  to  give 
notice  thereof  to  our  brethren  in  the  South. 

Tuesday,  16. — Rode  to  Bohemia,  where  I met  Thomas  Vasey,  who 
came  over  with  the  Doctor  and  R.  Whatcoat.  My  soul  is  deeply  en- 
gaged with  God  to  know  his  will  in  this  new  business. 

Friday,  26. — I observed  this  day  as  a day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  that 
I might  know  the  will  of  God  in  the  matter  that  is  shortly  to  come  be- 
fore our  Conference  ; the  preachers  and  people  seem  to  be  much  pleased 


Wesley  and  Asbuky. 


509 


Avith  the  projected  plan.  I myself  am  led  to  think  it  is  of  the  Lord.  I 
am  not  tickled  with  the  honor  to  be  gained — I see  danger  in  the  way. 
My  soul  waits  upon  God.  O that  he  might  lead  us  in  the  way  we  should 
go!  Part  of  my  time  is,  and  must  necessarily  be,  taken  up  with  pre- 
paring for  the  Conference. 

Tuesday,  30. — I preached  with  enlargement  to  rich  and  poor  on  “that 
Ave  may  have  boldness  in  the  day  of  judgment.”  The  Lord  has  done 

great  things  for  these  people.  The  ReA^.  Mr.  W s and  myself  had 

an  interesting  conversation  on  the  subject  of  the  episcopal  mode  of 
Church  gOA^ernment.  I spent  the  evening  with  D.  Weems,  and  spoke  to 
the  black  people. 

Saturday,  December  18. — Spent  the  day  at  Perry  Hall,  partly  in  pre- 
paring for  Conference.  Continued  at  Perry  Hall  until  Friday,  the  24th. 
We  then  rode  to  Baltimore,  where  we  met  a few  preachers;  it  was 
agreed  to  form  ourselA'es  into  an  episcopal  Church,  and  to  have  superin- 
tendents, elders,  and  deacons.  When  the  Conference  ay  as  seated  Dr. 
Coke  and  myself  Avere  unanimously  elected  to  the  superinteudency  of 
the  Church,  and  my  ordination  followed,  after  being  previously  ordained 
deacon  and  elder,  as  by  the  folloAving  certificate  may  be  seen: 

Know  all  men  hy  these  presents,  That  I,  Thomas  Coke,  Doctor  of  CiA'il  Larr,  late 
of  Jesus  College,  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  superintendent  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Almighty  God,  and  with  a single  eye  to  his  glory,  by  the  imposition  of 
my  hands  and  prayer,  (being  assisted  by  two  ordained  elders,)  did,  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  day  of  this  month,  December,  set  apart  Francis  Asbury  for  the  office  of  a 
deacon  in  the  aforesaid  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  And  also,  on  the  twenty-sixth 
day  of  the  said  month,  did,  by  the  imposition  of  my  hands  and  prayer,  (being  assisted 
by  the  said  elders,)  set  apart  the  said  Francis  Asbury  for  the  office  of  elder  in  the 
said  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  And  on  this  twenty-seventh  day  of  the  said 
month,  being  the  day  of  the  date  hereof,  have,  by  the  imposition  of  my  hands  and 
prayer,  (being  assisted  by  the  said  elders,)  set  apart  the  said  Francis  Asbury  for 
the  office  of  a superintendent  in  the  said  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  a man 
Avhom  I judge  to  be  well  qualified  for  that  great  work.  And  I do  hereby  recom- 
mend him  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  as  a fit  person  to  preside  over  the  flock  of 
Christ.  In  testimony  whereof,  I have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this  twenty- 
seventh  day  of  December,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1184.  Thomas  Coke. 

Twelve  elders  were  elected,  and  solemnly  set  apart  to  serve  our  Socie- 
ties in  the  United  States ; one  for  Antigua,  and  two  for  Nova  Scotia. 
We  spent  the  whole  week  in  Conference,  debating  freely,  and  determin- 
ing all  things  by  a majority  of  votes.  The  Doctor  preached  every  day 
at  noon,  and  someone  of  the  other  preachers  morning  and  evening.  We 
were  in  great  haste,  and  did  much  business  in  a little  time. 


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Monday,  January  3,  1785. — The  Conference  is  risen,  and  I have  now  a 
little  time  for  rest.  In  the  evening  I preached  on  Ephesians  iii,  8,  being 
the  first  sermon  after  my  ordination.  My  mind  was  unsettled,  and  I was 
but  low  in  my  own  testimony. 

Sunday,  9. — We  read  prayers,  preached,  ordained  Brother  Willis  dea- 
con, and  baptized  some  children.  I feel  nothing  but  love.  I am  some- 
times afraid  of  being  led  to  think  something  more  of  myself  in  my  new 
station  than  formerly. 

Nothing  can  exceed  the  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity  of 
these  records  ; and  how  suggestive  they  are  ! 

John  Wesley  never  rose  to  a greater  height  than  tvhen  he 
surmounted  the  prejudices  of  his  edttcation,  and  set  apart  Dr. 
Coke  as  the  first  superintendent,  or  bishop,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  America,  designating  Asbury  as  his  asso- 
ciate. If  what  he  did  needed  any  explanation  or  defense  we 
have  it  in  the  letter  which  he  wrote  on  the  occasion,  as  fol- 
lows : — 

Bristol,  September  10,  1784. 

To  Dr.  Cohe,  Mr.  Asbury,  and  our  brethren  in  North  America  : 

1.  By  a very  uncommon  train  of  providences  many  of  the  provinces 
of  North  America  are  totally  disjoined  from  their  mother  country,  and 
erected  into  independent  States.  The  English  Government  has  no 
authority  over  them,  either  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  any  more  than  over 
the  States  of  Holland.  -A  civil  authority  is  exercised  over  them, 
partly  by  the  Congress,  partly  by  the  State  Assemblies.  But  no  one 
either  exercises  or  claims  any  ecclesiastical  authority  at  all.  In  this 
peculiar  situation  some  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  States 
desire  my  advice ; and  in  compliance  with  their  desire  I have  drawn 
up  a little  sketch. 

3.  Lord  King’s  “Account  of  the  Primitive  Church”  convinced  me, 
many  years  ago,  that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  the  same  order,  and 
consequently  have  the  same  right  to  ordain.  In  many  years  I have 
been  importuned,  from  time  to  time,  to  exercise  tliis  right  by  ordain- 
ing part  of  our  traveling  preachers;  but  I have  still  refused,  not  only 
for  peace’  sake,  but  because  I was  determined  as  little  as  possible  to 
violate  the  established  order  of  the  National  Church,  to  which  I be- 
longed. 

3.  But  the  case  is  widely  different  between  England  and  North 


Wesley  and  Asburt. 


511 


America.  Here  there  are  bishops  who  have  a legal  jurisdiction:  in 
America  there  are  none,  and  l)Ut  few  parish  ministers;  so  that  for 
some  hundred  miles  together  there  is  none  either  to  baptize  or  to  ad- 
minister the  Lord’s  Supper.  Here,  therefore,  my  scruples  are  at  an 

* 

end;  and  I conceive  myself  at  full  liberty,  as  I violate  no  order,  and 
invade  no  man’s  right,  by  apjjointiug  and  sending  laborers  into  the 
harvest. 

4.  I have  accordingly  appointed  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Francis  Asbury 
to  be  joint  superintendents  over  our  brethren  in  North  America;  ns 
also  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasby  to  act  as  elders  among 
them,  by  baptizing  and  administering  the  Lord’s  Supper. 

5.  If  any  one  will  point  out  a more  rational  and  scriptural  way  of 
feeding  and  guiding  these  poor  sheep  in  the  wilderness  I will  gladly 
embrace  it.  At  present  I cannot  see  any  better  method  than  that  I 
have  taken. 

6.  It  has,  indeed,  been  proposed  to  desire  the  English  bishop  to  or- 

dain part  of  our  preachers  for  America.  But  to  this  I object,  (1.)  I 
desired  the  Bishop  of  London  to  ordain  one  only,  but  could  not  pre- 
vail. (2.)  If  they  consented,  we  know  the  slowness  of  their  proceed- 
ings, but  the  matter  admits  of  no  delay.  (3.)  If  they  w'ould  ordain 
them  now,  they  would  likewise  expect  to  govern  them.  And  how 
grievously  would  this  entangle  us  ! (4.)  As  our  American  brethren 

are  now  totally  disentangled,  both  from  the  State  and  from  the  En- 
glish hierarchy,  we  dare  not  entangle  them  again  either  with  the  one 
or  the  other.  They  are  now  at  full  liberty  simply  to  follow  the 
Scriptures  and  the  primitive  Church.  And  we  judge  it  best  that  they 
should  stand  fast  in  that  liberty  wherewith  God  has  so  strangely 
made  them  free.  John  Wesley. 

How  laconic ! How  judicious ! How  conclusive  ! At  tlie 
same  time  Mr.  "Wesley  revised  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of 
England,  including  the  Ordinal  for  the  ordination  of  superin- 
tendents, elders,  and  deacons,  as  he  chose  to  style  the  three 
ranks  in  the  ministry,  instead  of  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons. 

The  reason  for  substituting  elders  for  priests  is  obvious. 
Priest,  as  an  abridgment  of  presbyter,  means  elder ; but  in  the 
authorized  version  of  the  Hew  Testament  priest  stands  for 
hiereus,  a sacrificing  functionary,  (saoerdos,)  and  never  for 
'^'resbuteros,  an  elder.  There  is  no  sacrificing  priest  in  the 


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Christian  Cluircli,  except  onr  Grreat  Iligh-priest ; and  as  all  be- 
lievers constitute  “ a holy  priesthood  to  offer  iip  spiritual  sacri- 
fices acceptable  to  God  by  Jesiis  Christ,”  what  a vast  amount 
of  popery  has  been  smuggled  into  the  Anglican  Church  under 
cover  of  this  ambiguous  word  we  need  not  state.  Wesley  did 
well  to  change  it. 

There  was  no  necessity  for  changing  the  word  bishop.  In 
the  Hew  Testament,  indeed,  it  denotes  the  pastor  of  a con- 
gregation, and  is  thus  used  interchangeably  with  elder — never 
for  apostle  or  evangelist.  But  the  associations  connected  with 
this  title  in  England,  not  to  speak  of  Romish  and  Oriental 
communities,  were  such  as  to  induce  Wesley  to  prefer  the  title 
superintendent,  which  means  the  same  as  e^ishopos,  or  bishop. 
And  this  explains  the  letter  which  Wesley  wrote  to  Asbury 
censuring  him  for  allowing  himself  to  be  addressed  by  this 
title. 

The  Conference  of  1Y87  resolved,  that  as  some  had  scruples 
at  using  the  title  “ reverend,”  every  one  might  have  his  choice, 
using  the  title  or  the  simple  name  with  the  official  character, 
as  bishop,  elder,  or  deacon,  as  the  case  might  be.  Any  one 
might  see  that  they  coidd  not  use  the  title  “ superintendent,” 
as  “ Superintendent  Asbury  ; ” so  bishop  was  adopted  by  those 
who  preferred  it,  and  in  other  relations  “ superintendent  ” con- 
tinued to  be  used,  as  it  is  to  this  day.  Matters  of  this  sort  take 
care  of  themselves. 

Wesley  did  not  scruple  at  the  thing — episcopacy — that  was 
what  he  wanted ; nor  at  the  word  ej^iscopal — he  would  have 
organized  a Church  of  no  other  order,  as  every  body  knew, 
and  as  the  ordinal  which  he  prepared  with  the  liturgy  fully 
demonstrates. 

The  Presbyterians  call  their  pastors,  bishops ; hence  in  his 
letter  to  Asbury  Wesley  counseled  the  Methodists  not  to 
imitate  them  in  the  use  of  this  title. 

But  Wesley  himself  was  reported  in  the  Minutes  as  exercis- 
ing the  episcopal  office  in  America,  and  he  never  objected  to 


Wesley  and  Asbuet. 


513 


it ; but  wben  pressed  concerning  his  acting  as  bishop,  he  did 
not  deny,  but  justified  it,  saying,  “ I firmly  believe  that  I am 
a scriptural  ejpisliopos^  as  much  as  any  man  in  England  or  in 
Europe.”  That  is,  perhaps,  an  extended  application  of  the 
scriptural  term ; but  that  does  not  concern  the  point  in 
question. 

Wesley  wanted  the  Methodists  to  have  an  episcopacy  like 
that  of  the  Alexandrian  and  other  ancient  Churches,  and  the 
Lutheran  and  some  other  modern  Churches,  jxbre  ecclesiastico, 
not  jure  divino,  unless  any  one  chooses  to  consider  the  reg- 
imen of  the  seven  apocalyptic  Churches  as  “ Episcopal,”  inas- 
much as  immediately  after  the  apostolic  age  we  find  a presid- 
ing elder — -jprimus  inter  pares — called,  by  way  of  distinction, 
“ bishop,”  in  every  Church  in  Chi’istendom. 

We  are  devoutly  thankful  that  Wesley  perpetuated  the  epis- 
copal regimen.  We  are  glad,  too,  that  it  was  derived  from 
J ohn  W esley,  and  not  from  the  Bishop  of  London,  or  any  other 
prelate.  Had  it  been  derived  from  the  latter,  it  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  there  would  be  men  among  us  who  would  at- 
tempt to  trace  the  succession  by  tactual  prelatical  ordination  to 
the  times  of  the  apostles  ; and  leave  to  “ uncovenanted  mercies  ” 
all  the  communions  in  Christendom  who  are  not  linked  on  to 
this  succession. 

It  is  pleasing  to  note  that  while  Asbury  was  the  choice  of 
Mr.  Wesley  for  the  episcopate,  he  would  not  accept  it  till  he 
was  chosen  by  the  free  suffrage  of  his  brethren ; and  that  then 
he  obtained  the  assistance  of  the  learned  and  devout  Mr.  Otter- 
bein — the  founder  of  “ The  United  Brethren  in  Christ,”  and 
once  a distinguished  presbyter  of  the  German  Eeformed 
Church — in  setting  him  apart  to  the  episcopal  office  by  the  lay- 
ing on  of  hands.  Dr.  Coke,  a presbyter  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland, and  first  bishop  or  superintendent  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  performing  the  ordination  service,  assisted 
also  by  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Yasey,  who  had  been 
ordained  presbyters  by  W esley.  Coke,  and  Creighton,  all  pres- 


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bjters  of  the  Anglican  Church.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of 
any  thing  more  deliberate,  regular,  scriptural,  and  expedient 
than  all  this ; and  surely,  if  ever  the  end  justifies  the  means 
where  both  are  alike  lawful  and  right,  subsequent  events  show 
that  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  in  the  premises. 

In  view  of  the  great  difference  in  their  early  training  and 
associations,  as  might  be  expected,  the  esthetic  tastes  of  Wes- 
ley and  Asbury  were  very  different.  Wesley  had  a keen  rel- 
ish for  architecture,  poetry,  music;  he  published  books  of 
music  for  the  voice,  organ,  and  harpsichord,  and  he  was 
scrupulously  genteel  in  his  personal  appearance,  and  looked 
venerable  in  his  clerical  costume.  His  principles  and  habits  of 
rigid  economy  precluded  any  lavish  expenditures  on  his  houses 
of  worship,  which  he  made  commodious,  comfortable,  and 
neat.  Asbury  had  a great  aversion  to  display,  which  he  carried 
to  extremes.  He  expressed  his  dislike  to  steeples  and  bells  on 
the  churches,  as  well  as  organs  in  them.  When  on  a visit  to 
Augusta,  Ga.,  in  1806,  he  made  this  entry  in  his  journal; 
“ And  behold  here  is  a bell  over  the  gallery — and  cracked,  too 
— may  it  break ! It  is  the  first  I ever  saw  in  a house  of  ours 
in  America ; I hqpe  it  will  be  the  last.” 

When  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  organized  it  was 
natural  enough  to  conform  it  somewhat  to  the  mother 
Church  of  England.  Wesley,  as  we  have  seen,  prepared  for 
it  a liturgy — an  abridgment  of  the  Anglican — and  the  Confer- 
ence ordered  its  use  in  the  Connection.  Asbury  and  his 
preachers  used  it  for  some  time ; but  only  two  editions  of  it 
were  published.  Despite  Mr.  Wesley’s  wishes  it  went  into 
desuetude.  The  Sunday  Service  was  thought  to  be  cumbrous, 
especially  in  country  places ; hence,  by  common  consent,  it  was 
laid  aside,  and,  so  far  as  appears,  no  action  was  taken  concern- 
ing it. 

So  of  the  gown  and  bands.  They  were  kept  at  old  Light- 
sti-eet  Church,  Baltimore,  where  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  was  organized,  to  be  used  by  the  officiating  preachers. 


AYesley  and  Asbuey. 


515 


I have  heard  old  people  say  that  Bishop  Asbury  looked  vener- 
able in  that  garb.  But  it  was  Saul’s  armor  to  him,  and  he  laid 
it  aside ; he  could  fight  better  with  his  sling  and  stone.  As  an 
Episcopalian  he  had  no  prejudice  against  the  gown;  the  Wes- 
leys wore  it,  and  they  are  usually  seen  with  it  in  their  portraits. 
But  its  use  was  found  impracticable  in  the  country,  and  so  it 
was  laid  aside.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  mrplice  was  used 
by  the  fathers  of  Methodism,  but  simply  the  black  gown  in 
which  ministers  of  the  Chiirch  of  England  used  to  deliver 
their  sermons.  As  to  Episcopal  robes,  miters,  crosiers,  etc.,  I 
suppose  their  use  never  entered  into  the  heads  of  our  fathers, 
who  did  not  seem  to  think,  “ A saint  in  crape  is  twice  a saint 
in  lawn.” 

When,  in  1775,  Asbury  received  a call  to  Antigua — Wesley 
ha\'ing  given  consent  to  his  going — he  said,  “ I feel  inclined  to 
go,  and  take  one  of  the  young  men  with  me.  But  there  is  one 
obstacle  in  my  way — -the  administration  of  the  ordinances.  It 
is  possible  to  get  the  ordination  of  a presbytery,  but  this  would 
be  incompatible  with  Methodism ; which  would  be  an  effectual 
bar  in  my  way.”  How  pro-vfidentially  was  that  obstacle  re- 
moved ! not  to  his  going  to  Antigua,  but  to  his  traversing  the 
continent,  like  the  apocalyptic  angel,  exercising  his  functions, 
indeed,  as  an  “ angel  of  the  Church.” 

As  an  earnest  of  what  he  was  going  to  do,  on  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  Conference  at  which  he  was  ordained  he  mounted 
his  horse  and  rode  the  first  day,  through  frost  and  snow,  fifty 
miles  to  Fairfax,  Ya. 

From  that  time  to  the  day  of  his  death  his  labors  were  scarcely 
inferior  to  those  of  the  chief  of  the  apostles.  “ The  monument 
of  his  organizing  and  administrative  talent,”  says  M’Clintock 
and  Strong’s  Cyclopaedia,  “may  be  seen  in  the  discipline 
and  organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  which 
grew  under  his  hands  during  his  life-time,  from  a feeble  band 
of  4 preachers  and  316  members,  to  nearly  700  itinerants,  2,000 
local  preachers,  and  over  214,000  members.  Within  the  com- 


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pass  of  every  year  the  borderers  of  Canada  and  the  planters  of 
Mississippi  looked  for  the  coming  of  this  primitive  bishop,  and 
were  not  disappointed.  His  travels  averaged  six  thousand 
miles  a year;  and  this  not  in  a splendid  carriage,  over  smooth 
roads ; not  with  the  ease  and  speed  of  the  railway,  but  often 
through  pathless  forests  and  untraveled  wildernesses ; among 
the  swamps  of  the  South,  and  the  prairies  of  the  West;  amid 
the  heats  of  the  Carolinas  and  the  snows  of  Hew  England. 
There  grew  up  under  his  hands  an  entire  Church,  with  fearless 
preachers  and  untrained  members ; but  he  governed  the  multi- 
tude as  he  had  done  the  handful,  with  a gentle  charity  and  an 
unflinching  firmness.  In  diligent  activity  no  apostle,  no  mis- 
sionary, no  warrior,  ever  surpassed  him.” 

This  is  well  said,  except  that  the  planters  of  Mississippi 
never  saw  his  apostolic  face  within  their  borders.  He  never 
was  south  or  west  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee.  At  the  Tennes- 
see Conference,  October,  1813,  he  writes : “ The  Tennessee 
Conference  were  not  willing  to  let  the  bishops  go  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi Conference.”  At  the  Conference  in  Kentucky,  Octo- 
ber, 1814,  he  writes : “ I had  wished  to  visit  Mississippi,  but 
the  injury  received  by  Bishop  M’Kendree  being  so  great  that 
it  is  yet  doubtful  whether  he  will  so  far  recover  as  to  be  pres- 
ent at  the  South  Carolina  Conference,  I must  decline  going. 
I live  in  God.”  In  October,  1815,  he  writes  : “ I have  visited 
the  South  thirty  times  in  thirty-one  years.  I wish  to  visit  Mis- 
sissippi, but  am  resigned  ” — “ I took  counsel  of  my  elder  sons, 
who  advise  me  not  to  go  to  Mississippi  this  year.”  The  next 
year  he  laid  down  his  body  with  his  charge,  “ and  ceased  at 
once  to  work  and  live  ! ” 

Wesley  was  opposed  to  slavery,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  so 
was  Asbury,  who  makes  frequent  references  to  it  in  his  jour- 
nal. It  is  interesting  to  note  how  a more  familiar  acquaint- 
ance with  the  institution  modified  his  views  in  reference  to  the 
treatment  of  it.  At  first,  like  Dr.  Coke,  Asbury  was  disposed 
to  expel  every  Methodist  who  would  not  liberate  his  slaves ; 


Wesley  and  Asbdrt. 


517 


but  be  soon  found  tbat  tbat  would  not  do.  He  saw  the  expe- 
diency of  procuring  places  of  worship,  wherever  practicable, 
for  the  blacks,  apart  from  the  whites.  Then  he  adopted  the 
policy  pursued  by  the  British  Wesleyan  missionaries  in  the 
West  Indies — labored  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the  owners, 
(which  he  never  abused,)  so  as  to  have  access  to  the  slaves. 
On  Christmas-day,  1802,  he  remarks  in  his  journal: — 

I preached  at  Rembert’s  Chapel,  and  on  Sunday  James  Patterson 
spoke  on  “Enoch  walked  with  God.”  There  is  a great  change  in  this 
settlement;  many  attend  with  seriousness  and  tears.  Whenever  our 
preachers  gain  the  confidence  of  the  lowland  planters,  (if,  indeed,  that 
time  shall  ever  be.)  so  that  the  masters  will  give  us  all  the  liberty  we 
ought  to  have,  there  will  be  thousands  of  the  poor  slaves  converted  to 
God.  The  patient  must  be  personally  visited  by  the  physician  before 
advice  and  medicine  will  be  proper;  and  so  it  is,  and  must  ever  be,  with 
the  sin-sick  soul  and  the  spiritual  physician. 

February  12,  1803. — (Wilmington,  N.  C.)  I met  the  people  of  color, 
leaders  and  stewards ; we  have  eight  hundred  and  seventy-eight  Afri- 
cans and  a few  whites  in  fellowship.  The  Africans  hire  their  time  of 
their  masters,  labor  and  grow  wealthy;  they  have  built  houses  on  the 
church  lots.  I hope  to  be  able  to  establish  a school  for  their  children. 

December  11,1803. — When  Brother  Mark’s  house  is  finished  he  hopes 
to  build  a chapel,  which  he  means  to  call  Sardis ; he  is  a kind  master  to 
his  slaves,  and  hints  the  probability  of  his  liberating  them  by  will ; but 
he  may  change  his  mind  before  he  dies. 

By  pursuing  this  line  of  conduct  Asbury  and  his  co-laborers 
gained  the  confidence  of  the  masters,  and  brought  thousands 
of  them  and  their  slaves  into  the  liberty  with  which  Christ 
makes  us  free.  In  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
alone,  there  were  some  two  hundred  thousand  colored  com- 
municants, when  the  institution  was  abolished.  The  masters 
loved  him  and  showed  him  great  hospitality ; and  the  slaves 
almost  worshiped  him  as  their  devoted  friend.  ISTothing  is 
hazarded  in  saying,  that  Bishop  Asbury  did  more  than  any 
other  man  to  elevate  “ the  servile  progeny  of  Ham,”  and  to  pre- 
pare them  for  the  freedom  which  they  now  possess  ; and  if  his 


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wise  method  had  been  pursued  by  all  concerned,  the  same 
issue  would  have  been  reached  without  that  fratricidal  war 
which  desolated  this  fair  heritage,  and  decimated  its  population. 
The  time  has,  perhaps,  come  when  this  subject  may  be  dis- 
cussed with  a calm,  dispassionate,  unj)rejudiced  spirit  and  tem- 
per ; or,  if  it  has  not,  it  will  soon  come,  and  then  this  apostolic 
man  will  receive  his  due  meed  of  praise.  The  story  of  Bishop 
Asbury  and  Punch — a worthless  negro  whom  he  found  fishing, 
and  to  whom  he  preached  -Jesus,  and  brought  him  to  tlie 
knowledge  of  salvation — is  a well-known  romantic  incident 
which  illustrates  his  character.  By  him  the  poor  negro  had 
the  gospel  preached  to  him  in  deed  and  in  truth ; and  he  thus 
showed  that  he  was  in  the  true  apostolical  succession. 

Asbury  was  never  married.  John  and  Charles  Wesley, 
Wlaitefield,  Fletcher,  and  Coke,  all  married — some  happily — 
John  Wesley  unhappily.  This  may  have  had  something  to  do 
with  Asbury’s  celibacy.  He  writes  : — 

January  26,  1804.^ — -If  I should  die  in  celibacy,  which  I think  quite 
possible,  I give  the  following  reasons  for  what  can  scarcely  be  called  my 
choice.  I was  called  in  my  fourteenth  year;  I began  my  public  exer- 
cises between  sixteen  and  seventeen;  at  twenty-one  I traveled;  at 
twenty-six  I came  to  America:  thus  far  I had  reasons  enough  for  a 
single  life.  It  had  been  my  intention  of  returning  to  Europe  at  thirty 
years  of  age;  but  the  war  continued,  and  it  was  ten  years  before  we  had 
a settled,  lasting  peace ; this  was  no  time  to  marry  or  be  given  in  mar- 
riage. At  forty-nine  I was  ordained  sujjerintendent  bishop  in  America. 
Among  the  duties  imposed  upon  me  by  my  office  was  that  of  traveling 
extensively,  and  I could  hardly  expect  to  find  a woman  with  grace 
enough  to  enable  her  to  live  but  one  week  out  of  the  fifty-two  with  her 
husband.  Besides,  what  right  has  any  man  to  take  advantage  of  the 
affections  of  a woman,  make  her  his  wife,  and  by  a voluntary  absence 
subvert  the  whole  order  and  economy  of  the  marriage  state  by  separating 
those  whom  neither  God,  nature,  nor  the  requirements  of  civil  society 
permit  long  to  he  put  asunder?  It  is  neither  just  nor  generous.  I may 
add  to  this,  that  I had  little  money,  S-nd  with  this  little  administered 
to  the  necessities  of  a beloved  mother  until  I was  fifty-seven.  If  I have 
done  wrong  I hope  God  and  the  sex  will  forgive  me.  It  is  my  duty 


Wesley  and  Asbuet. 


519 


now  to  bestow  the  pittance  I may  have  to  spare  upon  the  widows  and 
fatherless  girls,  and  poor  married  men. 

Although  Asbury  never  married,  yet  he  showed  great  defer- 
ence to  the  gentler  sex,  and  took  great  interest  in  children. 
He  was  very  desirous  of  establishing  district  schools  throughout 
the  Connection,  and  he  is  said  to  have  organized  the  first  Sun- 
day-school on  the  plan  of  Mr.  Raikes  in  the  United  States. 
He  did  all  in  his  power  to  promote  the  interests  of  Cokesbury 
College,  before  it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  though  he  did  not 
favor  the  establishment  of  a collegiate  institution,  and  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  naming  of  it  after  Coke  and  himself, 
for  which  he  was  unwittingly  censured  by  Wesley. 

Bishop  Wightman,  in  his  admirable  “ Sketch  of  Francis  As- 
bury,” relates  the  following  interesting  incident : — 

Among  the  earliest  recollections  of  the  writer  of  this  sketch  is  a toler- 
ably vivid  impression  of  a venerable  old  man,  shrunk  and  wrinkled, 
wearing  knee-breeches  and  shoe-buckles,  dressed  in  dark  drab,  whose 
face  to  a child’s  eyes  would  have  seemed  stern  but  for  the  gentleness  of 
his  voice  and  manner  toward  the  little  people.  It  was  the  custom  of  my 
honored  and  now  sainted  mother,  no  doubt  at  the  instance  of  the  bishop 
himself,  to  send  her  children  to  pay  him  a visit  whenever  he  came  to 
the  city.  The  last  one  was  made  in  company  with  my  two  younger 
brothers.  The  bishop  had  some  apples  on  the  mantel-piece  of  the 
chamber  where  the  little  group  of  youngsters,  the  eldest  only  seven 
years  old,  were  introduced.  After  a little  religious  talk  suitable  to  our 
years  and  capacity,  the  venerable  man  put  his  hands  on  our  heads,  one 
after  another,  with  a solemn  prayer  and  blessing,  and  dismissed  us, 
giving  the  largest  apple  to  the  smallest  child,  in  a manner  that  left  upon 
me  a life-long  impression.  I remember,  too,  how  he  was  carried  into 
Trinity  Church,  and  placed  upon  a high  stool,  and  with  trembling  voice 
delivered  his  last  testimony  there.  An  incident  trifling  in  itself  may 
powerfully  illustrate  character;  and  the  foregoing  shows  the  attention 
which  the  chief  of  a Church  extending  from  Canada  to  Georgia,  with 
cares  innumerable  occupying  his  thoughts,  in  oft  and  extreme  feeble- 
ness, was  accustomed  to  pay  to  children — little  children.  This,  too,  not 
so  much  of  any  extraordinary  fondness  for  children,  but  because  in 
these  little  ones  he  saw  future  recruits  for  Christ,  and  desired  to  have 
33 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


religious  impressions  made  upon  them  in  their  earliest  years.  His  at- 
tention won  their  confidence,  and  indirectly  but  powerfully  increased  his 
hold  upon  the  affections  of  parents.  He  lived  to  see  multitudes  of  chil- 
dren’s children,  who  could  remember  with  solemn  joy  his  interest  in 
them,  his  advices  and  prayers. 

Dr.  Bangs  estimates  that  during  the  forty-five  years  of  his 
ministry  in  America  Asbury  delivered  over  sixteen  thousand 
sermons,  besides  innumerable  lectures  and  exhortations ; trav- 
eled two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  miles,  mostly  on  horse- 
back, on  bad  roads ; sat  in  over  two  hundred  and  twenty 
Annual  Conferences ; and  ordained  more  than  four  thousand 
ministers. 

Bishop  Asbury  was  very  warm  and  firm  in  his  friendships. 
Like  his  Master  he  had  here  and  there  a Bethany — a Lazarus, 
Martha,  and  Mary,  who  ministered  unto  him  of  their  sub- 
stance, and  oft  refreshed  his  spirit.  His  notices  of  them  read 
almost  like  postscripts  to  Rom.  xvi,  and  Phil.  iv. 

There  were  the  Goughs,  of  Perry  Hall,  Maryland.  The  copy 
of  Asbury’s  journal  which  I have  before  me  now  bears  this 
inscription : “ Presented  by  Mrs.  Pnidence  Gough  to  her 
niece,  Achsah  Carroll,  January,  1822.  Thomas  B.  Sargent’s, 
1832.”  Forty  years  ago  I was  the  pastor  of  Mrs.  Carroll  in 
Baltimore.  Dr.  Sargent  was  her  son-in-law.  How  dear  were 
the  Goughs  to  Asbury  ! How  they  ministered  to  his  comfort, 
and  helped  him  in  his  travels  ! 

Then  there  were  the  Remberts,  of  Rembert  Hall,  South 
Carolina.  What  could  he  have  done  without  their  annual 
contributions  to  his  wardrobe,  and  other  attentions  ? for  which  j 

they  felt  a thousand  times  repaid  by  his  sojourn  with  them,  , 

his  counsels,  and  his  prayers ! I 

But  time  would  fail  me  to  mention  Wells,  of  Charles-  | 
ton ; the  M’Kendrees,  of  Tennessee  ; the  Russells  and  Ar-  ! 

nolds,  of  Virginia,  where  he  died ; Rogers,  M’Cannon,  and  j 

others,  of  his  much-loved  Baltimore;  Weems,  of  Anne  Arun-  j 

del,  Md.  ; John  Dickins;  Hicholas  Snethen,  whom  I remem-  | 


Wesley  aetd  Asbeey, 


521 


ber  “in  age  and  feebleness  extreme and  John  Wesley  Bond, 
wbo  closed  bis  eyes;  and  others,  his  traveling  companions. 

0 hoTv  he  loved  them ! O how  they  loved  and  revered  their 
apostolic  leader! 

I find  this  entry  in  his  journal,  June  18,  1791 : 

I once  more  came  to  Baltimore,  where,  after  having  rested  a little,  I 
submitted  to  have  my  likeness  taken;  it  seems  they  will  want  a copy; 
if  they  wait  longer,  perhaps  they  may  miss  it.  Those  who  have  gone 
from  us  in  Virginia  have  drawn  a picture  of  me  which  is  not  taken  from 
the  life.” 

This  pleasant  bit  of  humor  was  characteristic  of  the  bishop. 

1 suppose  the  portrait  then  taken  was  that  to  which  Bishop 
Wig-htman  makes  allusion  in  his  “Sketch:” 

The  bishop  was  fastidious  about  having  his  portrait  painted,  and  per- 
sisted in  refusing  this  favor  to  his  friends.  It  was  got  out  of  him  in  the 
following  way:  At  a session  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  Bishop  Asbury 
lodged  with  his  friend,  M’Cannon,  v'ho  was  a merchant  tailor,  and 
wealthy.  He  had  to  pass  through  the  front  shop  in  entering  the  house. 
He  had  been  greatly  depressed  by  the  sad  equipment  of  many  of  the 
pioneers  for  the  ensuing  year.  As  he  passed  through  the  shop  Mr. 
M’Cannon  said  to  him:  “Brother  Asbury,  here  is  a piece  of  black  velvet 
which  I was  thinking  I would  make  up  for  the  preachers,  for  some  of 
them  seem  to  be  in  great  need.” 

“Ah,  James,”  said  the  bishop,  “that  would  be  doing  a good  thing  if 
you  can  afford  it ! ” 

“0  yes,  I can  afford  it;  but  I expect  to  be  paid  a good  price  for  it.” 

“Price  ! ” said  the  bishop;  “if  it  is  price  you  are  after  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  talk  any  more  about  it ; ” and  was  about  to  pass  on. 

“Come,  come,”  Brother  Asbury,”  said  his  friend,  “you  can  pav  the 
price,  and  be  none  the  poorer  for  it.” 

“ Why,  how  is  that  ? ” said  the  bishop. 

“ Just  this,”  answered  his  friend  ; “ if  you  will  sit  to  a painter  for 
your  portrait  I will  give  the  piece  of  velvet  to  the  preachers,  and  have 
it  made  up  for  them  besides.” 

“Ah,  James,”  said  the  bishop,  “I  believe  you’ve  got  me  now!” 
and  passed  on  to  the  parlor.  That  afternoon  he  gave  the  artist  a 
sitting. 


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Bishop  Soule,  a few  years  before  his  death,  showed  me  a 
portrait  of  Asbury  and  another  of  M’Kendree,  which  he  con- 
sidered faithful  likenesses  of  his  “Tenerable  friends,”  which 
he  designed  to  be  deposited  in  one  of  our  universities.  They 
are  striking  pictures. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  Bishop  Asbury  did  not  complain  of 
his  tribulations,  but  he  gloried  in  them — some  may  think  with 
too  frequent  repetition  and  with  too  much  self-introspection. 
But  he  could  not  well  help  this.  It  is  amazing  how  he  traveled 
so  much  in  all  weathers,  and  by  all  methods,  chiefly  the  most 
wearisome — crossing  the  Alleghanies  sixty  times — and  did  so 
much  ministerial  work,  while  constantly  beset  with  grievous 
afflictions.  He  seemed  to  live  largely  on  physic ! We  wonder 
at  the  work  performed  by  Calvin,  Baxter,  and  Robert  Hall, 
while  preyed  upon  by  disease.  They,  however,  were  but  little 
exposed — theirs  was  chiefly  mental  labor,  performed  frequently 
in  bed — as  especially  in  the  case  of  Calvin.  But  Asbury  ful- 
filled his  ministry  amid,  exposure,  hardships,  and  toils,  which 
would  seem  to  demand  an  iron  constitution  and  robust  health, 
the  very  opposite  of  which  was  his  sad  inheritance. 

Tradition  informs  us  that  when  oppressed  with  toil,  exposure, 
and  pain,  he  used  to  exclaim  : 

“Still  out  of  the  deepest  abyss 
Of  trouble,  I mournfully  cry, 

And  pine  to  recover  my  peace. 

And  see  my  Redeemer,  and  die. 

I cannot,  I cannot  forbear 

These  passionate  longings  for  home ; 

0 when  shall  my  spirit  be  there  ? 

O when  will  the  messenger  come  ? ” 

It  is  noteworthy  that  when  he  visited  a cave  in  Virginia,  and 
wished  to  know  how  his  voice  would  sound  in  it,  he  lifted  it  up 
in  the  strains  of  that  pathetic  De  Profundis  of  Charles  Wes- 
ley, suggested  by  his  position,  and  moved  by  the  pensive, 
though  not  melancholy  feeling,  which  was  natural  to  him. 


Wesley  and  Asbitry. 


523 


Bishop  Asbury  was  liberal  almost  to  a fault.  Of  the  pit- 
tance be  received  be  spent  nothing  on  himself  except  for  bare 
necessities.  He  rendered  aid  to  bis  widowed  mother  while  she 
bved.  At  a session  of  the  Western  Conference,  where  the 
preachers  were  too  poor  to  buy  decent  clothes,  to  assist  them, 
he  says,  “ I parted  with  my  watch,  my  coat,  and  my  shirt ! ” 

Asbury’s  catholicity  was  of  the  genuine  Methodist  type.  He 
loves  to  record  interviews  with  pious  ministers,  and  others  of 
different  denominations,  and  was  ever  ready  to  reciprocate  their 
kindly  regards,  and  to  aid  them  in  their  labors.  Holding  fast 
to  his  own  well-formed  and  settled  opinions,  he  acceded  to  all 
the  right  he  claimed  for  himself — caring  comparatively  little 
for  circumstantials  if  they  were  sound  in  fundamentals — accord- 
ing to  W esley — 

“ fellowship  with  all  we  hold, 

Who  hold  it  with  our  Head.” 

At  the  same  time  he  denounced  bigotry  and  arrogance,  so 
frequently  displayed  toward  him  by  “ the  Standing  Order  ” in 
Hew  England,  Prelatists  in  the  South,  and  Autinomians  every- 
where. It  may  be  thought  he  dealt  fully  as  much  in  sarcasm 
and  satire  as  was  needful,  when  open  enemies  and  false  friends, 
bigots  and  schismatics  dogged  his  steps,  and  traduced  his  name, 
as  the  “messenger  of  Safan”  did  the  great  apostle,  of  which 
he  so  bitterly  complained.  But  the  prevailing  tone  of  Asbury’s 
mind  was  meekness  and  patience,  saying,  with  David,  “ For 
my  love  they  are  my  adversaries;  but  I give  myself  unto 
prayer.” 

In  his  early  ministry  in  America  he  was  very  intimate  with 
two  Episcopal  ministers,  M’Gaw,  of  Delaware,  and  Mr.  Jarratt, 
of  Virginia.  They  were,  in  fact,  “Methodist  clergymen,” 
like  Grimshaw,  of  Haworth,  and  Fletcher,  of  Madeley.  They 
preached  among  the  Methodists,  attended  their  meetings,  enter- 
tained their  preachers,  and  gave  them  the  ordinances.  Asbury 
was  delighted  to  be  with  them,  and  to  attend  their  ministry. 
Mr.  Jarratt  imitated  Fletcher  as  far  as  possible.  He  wrote  a 


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The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


letter  to  Mr.  Wesley,  through  Asbury,  in  which  he  indorses 
the  doctrine  and  Discipline  of  the  Methodists  with  great 
warmth  and  zeal.  Asbury  speaks  of  him  very  frequently  in 
his  journal,  and  always  in  the  highest  terms  of  respect  and 
affection.  I do  not  remember  an  exception.  It  is  painful  to 
add  that  when  the  Methodists  became  more  numerous,  and 
especially  when  they  were  organized  into  an  Episcopal  Church, 
Mr:  Jarratt,  having  lost  his  popularity  as  well  as  his  health, 
became  very  acrimonious  and  sour  toward  his  old  friends — 
especially  toward  Dr.  Coke,  of  whom  he  said  savage  things. 
He  renounced  his  Methodist  opinions  and  practices,  and  wrote 
his  autobiography — a copy  of  which  is  now  open  before  me — 
a seH-contradictory  farrago,  the  greater  part  of  which  his  true 
friends  would  be  glad  to  consign  to  oblivion.  He  vilifies  his 
old  friends  without  stint ; but  the  worst  thing  he  says  about 
Asbury  is  this : “ Mr.  Asbury  is  certainly  the  most  indefati- 
gable man  in  his  travels  and  variety  of  labors  of  any  I am 
acquainted  with  ; and  though  his  strong  passion  for  superiority, 
and  thirst  for  domination,  may  contribute  not  a little  to  this, 
yet  I hope  he  is  chiefly  influenced  by  more  laudable  motives. 
However,  if  I err  in  this,  I have  this  satisfaction,  that  it  is  an 
error  founded  in  charity.”  This  evinces  no  great  stretch 
of  charity.  How  different  is  the  spirit  of  Asbury!  If  he 
knew  of  the  defection  of  his  old  friend,  he  threw  the  mantle 
of  a sincere  charity  over  it ; and  when  he  heard  of  his  death, 
mentions  him  with  great  kindness,  and  preaches  his  funeral 
sermon,  making  particular  mention  of  his  great  zeal  and  suc- 
cess in  the  conversion  of  souls. 

We  have  hardly  ever  read  of  one  who  prayed  so  much  as 
Bishop  Asbury.  He  would  rise  before  day,  and  pray  for  all 
the  preachers  and  Societies  by  name  ; he  had  ten  stated  seasons 
a day  for  prayer ; he  prayed  wherever  he  visited,  unless  abso- 
lutely debarred  from  doing  so  ; he  prayed  on  his  journeys,  by 
the  roadside,  every-where,  at  all  times,  without  ceasing.  He 
lived,  moved,  and  had  his  being  in  the  spirit  of  prayer  and  in 


Wesley  and  Asbuet. 


525 


tlie  element  of  perfect  love.  That  was  the  secret  of  his  power, 
that  accounts  for  his  great  achievements.  That  more  than 
compensated  for  his  defective  education. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  Bishop  Asbury  was  un- 
learned : far  from  it ! He  makes  frequent  reference  to  his  pe- 
rusal of  the  Scriptures  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin ; his  read- 
ing was  extensive,  considering  his  opportunities,  and  his  powers 
of  observation  and  absorption  were  very  great.  He  had  a vast 
fund  of  information  from  which  he  could  draw  on  all  occa- 
sions. I have  been  favored  with  some  of  his  autograph  docu- 
ments, and  I considered  them  superior  to  those  of  any  of  the 
fathers  of  American  Methodism  which  have  come  under  my 
notice,  always  excepting  Dr.  Coke,  who  was  a man  of  fine 
classic  attainments  and  an  elegant  writer,  second  only  to  the 
Wesleys  themselves. 

Speaking  of  Dr.  Coke,  I am  reminded  of  an  anecdote  which 
I heard  many  years  ago  of  him  and  Asbury.  During  the  ses- 
sion of  a Conference  in  Baltimore,  “ the  little  doctor,”  as  he 
was  affectionately  called,  remarked  to  Asbury ; — 

“ Bishop,  I am  afraid  these  American  preachers  cannot  read ; 
suppose  we  call  them  up,  and  see.” 

Asbury,  who  was  always  an  advocate  of  the  American  preach- 
ers when  they  were  thus  impeached,  humored  the  fancy,  and 
proposed  Monday  as  the  day  of  examination.  Meanwhile,  on 
the  intervening  Sunday,  he  put  some  of  his  great  American 
preachers  into  the  Light-street  pulpit,  and  they  preached  with 
so  much  eloquence  and  power  that  the  impulsive  doctor  sprang 
to  his  feet  and  embraced  Asbury,  exclaiming, 

“ I can’t  preach  a bit ! I can’t  preach  a bit ! ” 

Asbury  quietly  smiled,  and  asked,  “ Shall  we  have  them  up 
to-morrow  and  see  whether  or  not  they  can  read  ? ” 

“Ho.  I don’t  care  whether  they  can  read  or  not;  I can’t 
preach  a bit ! ” 

I remember  hearing  another  anecdote  of  Asbury,  which  I 
am  inclined  to  believe,  as  he  sometimes  tried  his  hand  at  tink- 


526 


The  Wesley  Memokiae  Voluime. 


ering  nymns.  He  wrote  some  verses,  wliicli  lie  showed  to  his 
German  friend,  Otterbein,  who  was  a fine  scholar,  asking  his 
opinion  of  them.  It  was  more  laconic  than  complimentary  : 

“Ah,  Pishop  ! you  are  no  boet ! ” 

Asbury  was  a close  student  of  Wesley’s  writings,  and  he 
imitated  him  as  far  as  he  could  in  his  simplicity,  terseness,  and 
directness  of  style,  as  well  as  in  his  passion  for  the  salvation  of 
souls  and  the  glory  of  God. 

Some  ill-disposed  persons  endeavored  to  make  a breach  be- 
tween Wesley  and  Asbury.  But  this  was  not  to  be.  The 
humble  itinerant  bishop  received  with  meekness  the  undeserved 
rebukes  of  his  venerable  father  in  the  gospel,  who  lived  long 
enough  to  see  that  the  charge  of  ambition  was  never  more  un- 
founded than  when  made  against  Asbury,  who  was  a paragon 
of  humility.  Before  the  venerable  Wesley  died  Asbury  wrote 
him  a kind  letter ; and  after  his  death  he  wrote  in  his  journal, 
(April  29,  1791 : ) 

The  solemn  news  reached  our  ears  that  the  public  papers  had  an- 
nounced the  death  of  that  dear  man  of  God,  John  Wesley.  He  died  in 
his  own  house  in  London,  in  the  eighty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  after 
preaching  the  gospel  sixty-four  years.  When  we  consider  his  plain  and 
nervous  writings ; his  uncommon  talent  for  sermonizing  and  journaliz- 
ing; that  he  had  such  a steady  flow  of  animal  spirits;  so  much  of  the 
spirit  of  government  in  him ; his  knowledge  as  an  observer ; his  attain- 
ments as  a scholar;  his  experience  as  a Christian;  I conclude  his  equal 
is  not  to  be  found  among  all  the  sons  he  hath  brought  up ; nor  his  supe- 
rior among  all  the  sons  of  Adam  he  may  have  left  behind.  Brother 
Coke  was  sunk  in  spirit,  and  wished  to  hasten  home  immediately.  For 
myself,  notwithstanding  my  long  absence  from  Mr.  Wesley,  and  a few 
unpleasant  expressions  in  some  of  his  letters  the  dear  old  man  has  writ- 
ten to  me,  (occasioned  by  the  misrepresentation  of  others.)  I feel  the 
stroke  most  sensibly ; and  I expect  I sliall  never  read  his  works  with- 
out reflecting  on  the  loss  which  the  Church  of  God  and  the  world  has 
sustained  by  his  death. 

But  Asbury  was  no  hero  worshiper.  His  independence  is 
greatly  to  be  admired.  He  was  not  willing  that  Wesley  himself 


Wesley  and  Asbuby. 


527 


should  interfere  in  the  government  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  after  it  was  organized  by  him.  Wesley  acceded  to  it 
an  autocracy,  and  Asbury  saw  that  it  should  be  maintained ; 
and  he  was  right ! We  greatly  honor  him  for  it.  Wesley  did, 
doubtless.  Asbury  was  always  solicitous  for  the  counsel  of  his 
venerable  friend,  and  ready  to  follow  it,  except  in  matters  of  a 
connectional  character  with  which  Wesley,  at  the  other  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  could  not  be  acquainted,  and  with  which  he  had 
no  right  to  interfere.  When  Wesley,  for  examj)le,  wished  to 
have  Whatcoat  made  a superintendent,  or  bishop,  Asbury  was 
rejoiced  to  get  such  a colleague ; but  he  was  unwilling  to  re- 
ceive any  one  in  that  capacity,  even  by  the  appointment  of 
AYesley,  until  he  was  elected  by  the  Conference,  as  he  was 
himself,  to  that  responsible  office ; and  he  was  right ! 

Bishop  Asbury  preached  his  last  sermon  in  Richmond,  Ya., 
March  24,  1816.  He  was  carried  to  the  pulpit,  seated  on  a ta- 
ble, where  he  spoke  nearly  an  hour  on  Romans  ix,  28  : “ For 
he  will  finish  the  work,  and  cut  it  short  in  righteousness  : be- 
cause a short  work  will  the  Lord  make  upon  the  earth.”  He 
then  proceeded  to  the  house  of  his  old  friend,  George  Arnold, 
in  Spottsylvania,  where  he  yielded  up  his  spirit  in  holy  tri- 
umph, March  21,  1816.  He  was  buried  in  Mr.  Arnold’s  fam- 
ily burying-ground,  biit  was  translated,  at  the  request  of  the 
General  Conference,  which  met  in  May,  1816,  in  Baltimore,  to 
that  city,  and  interred  under  the  recess  of  the  pulpit  of  Eutaw- 
street  Church.  That  spot  has  seemed  peculiarly  sacred  to  me 
when  I have  preached  there,  and  I cannot  but  regret  that  the 
venerable  remains  have  been  exhumed  and  deposited  in  Mount 
Olivet  Cemetery,  in  the  suburbs  of  Baltimore.  Many  a time 
have  I read  with  pensive  feelings  the  inscription  on  the  tablet, 
as  follows : — 

Sacred  to  the  memory  of  the  Reverend  Francis  Asbury,  Bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  He  was  born  in  England,  August  20, 
1745 ; entered  the  ministry  at  the  age  of  17 ; came  a missionary  to  Amer- 
ica 1771 was  ordained  bishop  in  this  city,  December  27,  1784;  annu- 


528  The  Wesley  Me:moeial  Volujie. 

ally  visited  the  Conferences  in  the  United  States;  with  much  zeal  contin- 
ued to  preach  the  word  for  more  than  half  a century;  and  literally  emlcd 
his  labors  with  his  life  near  Fredericksburgh,  Virginia,  in  the  full  triumph 
of  faith,  on  March  31,  1816,  aged  70  years,  7 months,  and  11  days.  His 
remains  were  deposited  in  this  vault  May  10,  1816,  by  the  General  Con- 
ference then  sitting  in  this  city.  His  journals  will  exhibit  to  posterity 
his  labors,  his  difficulties,  his  sufferings,  his  patience,  his  perseverance, 
his  love  to  God  and  man. 


IN  MEMOEIAM. 

CHARLES  WESLEY-HYMROLOGIST. 


'•'•Thou  sealest  up  the  sum^  full  of  wisdom^  and  perfect  in  heauty.  , . 
Thou  wast  upon  the  holy  mountain  of  God ; thou  hast  walked  up 
and  down  in  the  midst  of  the  stones  of  fire.'''' — Ezek.  xxviii,  12,  14. 

Bard  ! inspired  by  love  divine, 

Hallowing  influence  benign, 

Ever  vital,  ever  rife. 

Throbbing  warm  with  inner  life  ; 

Holy  unction,  quenchless  fire, 

AU  concenter  in  thy  lyre  ; 

Wreathe  the  laurel  round  thy  brow, 

Israel’s  sweetest  singer,  thou. 

Who  in  like  majestic  lays 
Ever  voiced  Jehovah’s  praise  ? 

Earth  is  choral  with  thy  songs 
From  her  countless  million  tongues  ; 

Girdling  the  great  world  around. 

Wheresoever  man  is  found, 

Hearts  are  melted,  harps  are  strung. 

And  thy  jubilates  sung. 

Who  beside  has  hymned  like  thee 
Jesu’s  death  and  agony  ? 

Jesus,  on  the  altar  bound  ; 

Jesus,  crucified  and  crowned  ; 

He  of  loving,  tender  heart. 

Meekly  bearing  sorrow’s  smart ; 

He,  omnipotent  to  save. 

Conqueror,  rising  from  the  grave  ? 


530 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


Thou  hast  sounded  an  alarm, 

Broken  Satan’s  hellish  charm  ; 

Sinners,  starting  from  their  sleep. 

Thou  hast  wooed  to  pray  and  weep  ; 
Spoken  gentle  words,  which  prove 
Winning  as  a mother’s  love ; 

Softest  sympathy  is  thine. 

Pouring  in  the  oil  and  wine. 

Tenderest  pathos,  comfort  sweet. 
Blending  in  concretion  meet ; 

Quickening  power  and  life  divine 
Here  mysteriously  conjoin ; 

Joy  unspeakable,  and  peace. 

Flow  together  and  increase  ; 

Streams  of  mercy,  deep  and  broad 
As  the  “ plenitude  of  God.” 

Words  with  wondrous  thought  combined. 
All  euphonious,  all  refined, 

Pure,  and  exquisitely  bright. 

As  a diamond’s  flash  of  light ; 

Nature’s  everlasting  rhyme. 

Welcome  as  the  evening-chime  ; 

More  divine  to  listening  ears 
Than  the  music  of  the  spheres. 

Faith  and  courage,  at  thy  word. 

Fight  the  battles  of  the  Lord ; 

Burnished  shields  and  swords  of  flame 
Clash  in  war  for  Jesu’s  name ; 

Onward  in  the  glorious  strife  ! 

Onward ! grasp  the  crown  of  life  ! 
Battle-hymns  are  heard  around. 

And  the  victor-warriors  crowned. 


In  Memoeiam. 


531 


O’er  affliction’s  waste  of  woe, 

Where  the  weeds  of  sorrow  grow, 
Come  tliy  angel-hymns  of  love 
Like  soft  whisperings  from  above  : 
Grladsome  songs  and  bliss  are  given. 
Grand  rehearsals,  hymns  of  heaven. 
While  on  Pisgah’s  top  we  stand 
Gazing  o’er  the  promised  land  ! 

At  the  death-bed,  o’er  the  grave. 
Where  the  sable  banners  wave. 

Thou  hast  struck  the  chord  of  peace. 
Sung  the  dirge  of  sweet  release ; 
Changed  the  slow  funereal  knell 
Into  a triumphant  swell. 

Until  gloomy  death  grows  bright 
In  the  resurrection’s  light. 

As  we  pass  the  surging  flood, 
“Hanging  on  the  arm  of  God,” 
Songs  of  victory,  bursts  of  joy. 

Still  our  raptured  tongues  employ ; 
Songs  for  life,  and  songs  for  death. 
Shout  we  with  our  latest  breath  ; 
Burning  words  of  victory,  given 
Last  on  earth  and  first  in  heaven, 

Bard  of  bards ! in  peerless  light 
On  the  empyrean  height. 

All  surpassing,  all  above. 

In  thy  canticles  of  love. 

Joining  hands  with  those  who  dwell 
Where  eternal  anthems  swell, 

How  we  wreathe  thy  deathless  brow, 
Israel’s  sweetest  singer,  thou. 


WESLEY  AND  LAY  PEEACHING. 


Forty  years  ago  one  of  the  most  distinguished  local  preach- 
ers on  the  American  Continent  pubhshed  this  sagacious 
and  truthful  aphorism : “ Methodism,  not  a human  contriv- 
ance, but  a providential  arrangement.” 

No  true  son  of  John  Wesley,  however,  claims  that  he  was 
inspired  of  God  for  his  wonderful  mission.  And  yet  like  other 
great  Church  reformers  he  was  aided  in  his  important  labors 
by  an  overruling  providence.  For  “it  is  the  same  God  which 
worketh  all  in  all.”  In  perfect  harmony  with  this,  it  is  con- 
fidently affirmed  that  the  life,  labors,  and  triumphs  of  John 
Wesley  were  most  strikingly  marked  by  the  providence  of  Al- 
mighty God. 

The  providential  employment  of  “lay  helpers”  by  John 
Wesley  in  the  establishment  and  growth  of  Methodism  forms, 
the  topic  of  this  article,  and  is  a subject  of  commanding  inter- 
est. John  and  Charles  Wesley  were  ordained  ministers  in  the 
Church  of  England,  and  strongly  attached  to  its  doctrines  and 
form  of  government.  While  young  and  ardent  they  entered 
upon  the  important  duty  of  arousing  a slumbering  Church  to 
the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
necessity  of  holiness  with  its  accompanying  fruits.  The  gospel 
which  they  preached  was  not  a new  religion,  but  the  revival 
of  long-neglected  scriptural  truths,  which  they  illustrated  by 
their  own  experience  and  practice.  The  spirituahty  of  the 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  had  been  lost  sight  of,  being 
concealed  under  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  mere  churchism  ; 
and  the  lives  of  many  of  the  ministers  and  laity  were  worldly, 
given  to  fashion  and  unseemly  pleasures. 

The  clergy  and  their  Church  wardens,  taking  offense  at  the 


Wesley  ai^d  Lay  Preaching. 


533 


earnest,  faithful  preaching  of  the  Wesleys,  excluded  them 
from  the  parish  churches.  God  allowed  them  to  be  thrust 
out  from  the  churches  to  raise  up  a holy  people,  devoted  to 
the  diffusion  of  earnest  Christianity.  In  consequence,  the 
world  became  their  parish.  Resorting  to  private  houses, 
market-places,  and  fields,  they  boldly  preached  the  gospel  of 
the  ever-blessed  God.  On  numerous  occasions  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  the  spiritually-neglected  poor,  and  many  other 
persons,  were  attracted  to  their  ministry. 

Such  an  apostolic  ministry  was  accompanied  by  most  gra- 
cious results.  The  harvest  was  great.  And  it  became  an  anx- 
ious inquiry,  What  should  be  done  to  promote  the  spiritual  in- 
terests of  those  who  had  been  converted  to  God,  and  instruct 
those  who  were  seeking  salvation  by  Jesus  Christ?  More- 
over, places  of  worship,  however  humble,  were  absolutely 
necessary;  and  the  contingent  expenses  of  the  new  move- 
ment required  assistance. 

John  Wesley  wisely  adopted  class-meetings  in  promotion 
of  these  great  objects.  Each  class  was  expected  to  be  com- 
posed of  twelve  members,  and  was  placed  under  the  care  of 
a competent,  faithful  person,  denominated  the  leader.  The 
religious  exercises  consisted  of  singing,  prayer,  and  reading 
the  holy  Scriptures ; and  each  member  was  expected  to  state 
freely  and  honestly  his  personal  experience  as  a Christian,  or 
as  an  earnest  seeker  of  religion.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  leader 
to  advise,  instruct,  reprove,  or  exhort,  each  member,  as  the 
case  in  his  best  judgment  required.  Regular  but  voluntary 
offerings  of  the  members  for  the  relief  of  the  Society  and 
the  poor  were  required  of  all  who  were  able  to  contribute. 
It  was  impracticable  for  John  Wesley  and  his  clerical  col- 
leagues to  be  present  at  all  the  class-meetings  while  prose- 
cuting their  itinerant  ministry.  This  led  to  the  employment 
of  the  first  class  of  lay  helpers  in  Wesleyan  Methodism.  In 
the  absence  of  the  ministers,  class-leaders,  chosen  from  among 
the  people,  became  sub-pastors. 


534 


The  "Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


During  a brief  absence  of  John  Wesley  from  London, 
Thomas  Maxfield,  a class-leader,  began  to  preach  without  his 
knowledge  or  consent.  On  Wesley’s  return,  when  he  was 
determined  to  silence  the  unauthorized  preacher,  his  honored 
mother  informed  him  that  she  had  heard  Mr.  Maxfield,  and  if 
God  had  caEed  her  son  to  preach,  he  had  also  called  his  zeal- 
ous class-leader.  By  her  advice  Mr.  Wesley  determined  to 
hear  for  himself  the  youthful  Maxfield.  After  the  sermon  of 
the  tyro  Mr.  Wesley  said : “It  is  of  the  Lord;  let  him  do  as 
seemeth  him  good.  What  am  I that  I should  withstand 
God  ! ” Thomas  Maxfield  was  immediately  employed  by  Mr. 
Wesley  as  a lay  preacher. 

About  the  same  time  John  Cennick,*  and  soon  afterward 
Thomas  Richards  and  Thomas  Westel,  became  lay  preachers  in 
connection  with  Mr.  Wesley.  This  was  the  commencement  of 
lay  preaching  among  the  Methodists.  John  Relson,  also,  a 
humble  stone-mason,  having  been  converted  to  God,  began  in 
his  own  retired  home  to  tell  his  family  and  neighbors  of  his 
happy  conversion,  and  to  exhort  them  to  seek  the  Lord.  The 
number  of  his  hearers  having  increased  until  the  yard  of  his 
dwelling  was  crowded,  he  stood  in  the  doorway  and  boldly 
testified  concerning  the  personal  salvation  he  had  received. 

Religious  awakenings  and  conversions  followed  the  preach- 
ing of  honest  J ohn  Nelson.  His  wife  and  mother  were  among 
the  converts.  The  latter  died  soon  thereafter  in  holy  triumph. 
Her  son  recorded:  “This  was  the  first  ripe  fruit  the  Lord 
gave  me.”  Advised  to  desist  from  preaching  untd  the  Wes- 
leys could  be  consulted,  he  replied  that  he  would  stop  if  the 
devil  would  stop  his  work,  not  otherwise  ! 

His  enemies  had  him  impressed  as  a soldier  into  the  British 
army,  and  he  was  cast  into  prison.  Within  the  bars  of  the 
common  jail,  and  subsequently  in  the  army,  he  continued  to 

* Mr.  Tyerman  says,  that  John  Cennick  began  to  preach  as  a lay  preacher  before 
Thomas  Maxfield.  Mr.  Wesley  says,  that  Joseph  Humphreys  was  the  first  lay 
preacher  who  assisted  him.  “The  first  lay  preacher  in  the  Methodist  move- 
ment,” writes  Mr.  Tyerman,  “ was  Howell  Harris.” — ^Editor. 


Wesley  and  Lay  Pee  aching. 


535 


preacli  the  “great  salvation.”  The  subsequent  employment 
of  John  Nelson  as  a lay  preacher  by  John  Wesley,  and  his 
success,  forms  an  interesting  chapter  in  Wesleyan  Methodism. 
“Nelson’s  Journal,”  as  written  by  himself,  was  one  of  the 
earliest  and  best  autobiographies  which  cheered  and  blessed  the 
families  of  early  Methodism,  as  it  may  well  do  those  of  later 
days. 

Charles  Wesley,  while  zealously  co-operating  with  his  dis- 
tinguished brother,  did  not  fully  accord  with  the  employment 
of  lay  preachers.  Gradually  his  opposition  diminished,  and, 
beholding  the  great  success  of  their  united  labors,  he  wrote 
that  triumphant  song  of  Methodism  : — 

“See  how  great  a flame  aspires, 

Kindled  by  a spark  of  grace  ! 

Jesus’  love  the  nations  flres, 

Sets  the  kingdoms  on  a blaze.” 

The  partial  separation  which  occurred  between  the  eloquent 
George  Whitefield,  and  a few  adherents,  from  immediate  co- 
operation with  John  Wesley,  however  regretted,  resulted  in  a 
diffusion  of  earnest  gospel  preaching  among  large  and  influen- 
tial Churches  which  believed  and  taught  the  special  doctrines 
held  by  the  great  reformer  John  Calvin — doctrines  which  were 
in  opposition  to  the  religious  views  of  Mr.  Wesley  and  his 
Societies.  It  was  a diversion,  but  not  a positive  loss  of  Mr. 
Whitefield’s  remarkable  pulpit  power.  John  Cennick  co- 
operated with  Mr.  Whitefield.  The  beautiful  hymn,  “Jesus, 
my  all,  to  heaven  is  gone,”  etc.,  which  lives  in  the  choice 
psalmody  of  the  religious  world,  was  written  by  Mr.  Cennick. 

It  now  became  important  that  the  lay  preachers  should  be 
properly  authorized  to  preach,  and  be  employed  according  to 
their  piety,  talents,  and  opportunities  for  usefulness.  Those 
who  were  prepared  to  enter  the  traveling  ministry  were  as- 
signed to  circuits  and  placed  in  charge  of  the  infant  Societies. 

The  most  meager  temporal  support  was  allowed,  if  collected, 
34 


536  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

but  not  promised ; and  there  was  no  contingent  fund  to  meet  the 
deficiencies  of  this  noble  company  of  self-sacrificing  moral  heroes. 

Many  of  the  lay  preachers  remained  with  the  Societies  to 
which  they  severally  belonged ; and  while  pursuing  worldly  avo- 
cations for  personal  and  family  support,  they  zealously  co-oper- 
ated, in  their  own  neighborhoods,  with  the  traveling  preachers 
in  the  promotion  of  Methodism.  Local  preachers,  distinctively 
so-called,  were  licensed  by  Mr.  Wesley,  or  under  his  authority. 
Their  work  was  to  preach  the  gospel,  in  the  necessary  absence 
of  the  itinerants,  in  private  houses,  chapels,  or  in  the  fields,  as 
opportunities  occurred.  They  became  a most  useful  agency  in 
home  mission  labors. 

Wesleyan  Methodism  rapidly  became  a moral  power  in 
England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland ; and  soon  began  to  develop 
missionary  interest  in  more  distant  countries. 

A galaxy  of  honored  names  was  gathered  from  the  traveling 
preachers.  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  Joseph  Benson,  Richard  Watson, 
Jabez  Bunting,  Robert  Rewton,  and  others,  distinguished  for 
learning,  piety,  and  administrative  abilities,  rose  to  great  emi- 
nence and  commanding  infiuence.  Preachers  of  less  distinction 
for  learning  and  public  fame,  but  not  less  so  for  holiness  and 
success,  like  the  sainted  William  Bramwell,  were  burning  and 
shining  lights  on  their  extensive  fields  of  circuit  labor.  Gid- 
eon Ouseley,  with  the  spirit  which  makes  martyrs,  became  the 
apostle  of  Methodism  to  Ireland,  and  fearlessly  denounced,  in 
the  public  streets  and  market-places,  with  marvelous  results, 
the  fallacies  and  gross  errors  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Thomas 
Walsh,  the  converted  Irish  papist — “who,”  says  Mr.  Wesley, 
“ was  so  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  Bible  that  if  he  were 
questioned  concerning  any  Hebrew  word  in  the  Old,  or  any 
Greek  in  the  Hew  Testament,  he  would  tell,  after  a brief 
pause,  not  only  how  often  the  one  or  the  other  occurred  in  the 
Bible,  but  what  it  meant  in  every  place,”  and  in  whose  mouth 
“ the  word,  whether  in  English  or  Irish,  was  sharper  than  a 
two-edged  sword” — in  Dublin  and  in  London  turned  hundreds 


Wesley  and  Lay  Preaching. 


537 


of  his  Romanist  countrymen  to  forsake  their  breviaries  and 
rely  for  pardon  solely  upon  simple  faith  in  the  cross  of  Christ. 
And  what  shall  I say  of  others  ? Time  would  fail  me  to  tell 
of  Sampson  Stainforth,  and  John  Haime,  and  Thomas  Olivers, 
and  John  Pawson,  and  Alexander  Mather — men  of  humble 
birth  and  slender  education,  but  heroes  all,  the  weapons  of 
whose  warfare  were  not  carnal,  but  mighty  through  God  to 
the  pulling  down  of  strongholds.  These  were  lesser  lights  of 
Methodism,  but  they  were  men  of  whom  Mr.  Overton,  in 
“ The  English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,”  has  lately 
written,  “ Cum  tales  essent,  utinam  nostri  fuissent  ” — since 
they  were  such,  would  that  they  had  been  ours. 

The  local  preachers,  who  deserve  honorable  mention,  were 
represented,  in  part,  by  Samuel  Hick,  the  “Village  Black- 
smith,” whose  humble  ministry  was  a notable  success,  adorned 
by  an  honest  holy  life,  worthy  of  imitation  by  all  his  successors 
in  the  lay  ministry.  Samuel  Drew,  who  began  his  business 
life  as  a shoemaker,  became  a local  preacher,  and  during  more 
than  forty  years  occasionally  occupied  the  best  pulpits  in 
London  and  other  important  places.  By  personal  application 
and  diligent  study  he  gradually  rose  to  great  eminence  in  the 
literary  world,  and  is  justly  ranked  among  the  first  metaphy- 
sicians of  his  native  land.  But  what  shall  I say  of  William 
Dawson,  the  Yorkshire  “farmer,  local  preacher,  and  general 
missionary  advocate,”  to  whom  John  Angell  James  applied  the 
words  of  the  poet,  “ Hature  made  him  and  then  broke  up  the 
mold?”  And  what  shall  I say  of  Jonathan  Saville,  “a  poor, 
feeble,  crippled  man,  the  victim  of  cruel  treatment  in  his  child- 
hood, whom  Methodism  found  in  the  almshouse,  but  purified 
and  exalted  to  be  a ‘ burning  and  shining  light  ’ in  the  land  ? ” 
These  eminent  worthies,  though,  some  of  them,  eccentric  and 
uncultivated,  were  a power  in  Wesleyan  Methodism,  who,  by 
their  thrilling  eloquence,  saintly  lives,  and  matchless  zeal,  won 
through  grace  many  trophies  to  Christ,  and  added  many  stars 
to  the  crowns  which  adorn  their  victorious  brows. 


538 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume, 


Similar  successes  to  those  which  Methodism  achieved  in  En- 
gland by  the  local  ministry  were  also  accomplished  in  Antigua, 
West  Indies.  Nathaniel  Gilbert,  a gentleman  of  wealth  and 
high  social  position,  after  reading  in  his  distant  home  some  of 
J ohn  W esley ’s  publications,  accompanied  by  several  of  his  slaves 
visited  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Wesley.  He  was  hap- 
pily converted  to  God,  as  were  also  two  of  his  slaves,  who  were 
baptized  by  Mr.  Wesley.  Mr.  Gilbert,  on  his  return  to  Antigua, 
fitted  up  a room  for  public  worship,  and  was  soon  “ branded  as 
a madman  for  preaching  to  his  slaves.”  His  brother,  Francis 
Gilbert,  also  labored  in  the  gospel  with  him.  A Society  was 
formed  at  St.  Johns,  and  through  their  instrumentality  Meth- 
odism was  planted  in  the  West  Indies.  Nathaniel  Gilbert 
died  eleven  years  before  the  first  Wesleyan  missionary  was  ap- 
pointed to  Antigua,  leaving  a Methodist  Society  of  sixty  mem- 
bers. When  he  was  near  death  a friend  inquired  of  the 
wealthy  lay  preacher,  “ On  what  do  you  trust  ? ” He  replied, 
“ On  Christ  crucified.”  “ Have  you  peace  with  God  ? ” He 
answered,  “ Unspeakable.” 

John  Wesley,  from  about  1737  to  his  death  in  1791,  super- 
vised all  these  providential  arrangements  for  spreading  script- 
ural holiness  through  the  lands.  Still  adhering  to  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  he  instructed  his  preachers,  and  the  Societies 
generally,  to  receive  the  holy  sacraments  administered  by  the 
regular  clergy.  With  limited  exceptions,  all  the  lay  preach- 
ers were  unordained  during  the  life-time  of  Mr.  Wesley,  and 
for  some  years  thereafter.  But  happily  for  the  promotion  and 
prosperity  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  in  Europe  and  the  mission 
fields,  the  travehng  ministry,  after  proper  probation,  are  now 
solemnly  ordained  as  ministers  in  the  Church  of  God.  The 
local  preachers,  with  comparatively  rare  exceptions,  remain 
licentiates,  and  are  ineligible  to  holy  orders. 

The  introduction  of  Methodism  into  the  American  Colo- 
nies— now  the  United  States  of  America — was  through  a series 
of  providential  occurrences.  Philip  Embury  and  Kobert  Straw- 


Wesley  and  Lay  Pee  aching. 


539 


bridge,  two  lay  preachers  from  Ireland,  landed  in  America  near 
the  same  period  between  1760  and  1764.  As  it  was  impor- 
tant that  New  York  city,  then  in  its  infancy,  should  become 
one  of  the  great  centers  of  American  Methodism,  Mr.  Embury 
and  other  fellow-immigrants  selected  New  York  for  their  new 
home.  Robert  Strawbridge  passed  into  Frederick  County, 
Maryland,  then  almost  a wilderness,  and  selected  a small  farm 
near  Sam’s  Creek,  as  the  residence  for  himself  and  family. 

Philip  Embury  prosecuted  his  work  as  a house  carpenter 
in  New  York  city,  and  met  with  reasonable  success  in  busi- 
ness. For  several  years  it  is  recorded  that  he  failed  to  exer- 
cise his  gifts  as  a lay  preacher.  This  almost  unaccountable 
delinquency  is  scarcely  credible  in  view  of  his  subsequent  active 
and  efficient  ministry.  That  alleged  interregnum  may  be  in 
some  “Lost  Chapter”  of  New  York  Methodism. 

Female  agency  and  its  valuable  influence  also  marked  the 
early  lay  ministry.  The  beautiful  and  accomplished  mother 
of  John  Wesley  pleaded  with  her  son  not  to  silence  Thomas 
Maxfield,  the  first  layman  who  ventured  to  preach  in  the  city 
of  London.  And  Barbara  Heck,  a co-immigrant  and  relative  of 
Philip  Embury,  has  the  high  honor  of  arousing  this  neglectful 
preacher  to  his  sacred  and  important  duties  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  If  his  license  had  expired  from  non-use,  she  effect- 
ually renewed  it  by  her  strong  and  urgent  appeal.  He  preached 
his  first  sermon  in  his  own  dwelling  to  a company  of  five  per- 
sons. Other  valuable  services  soon  followed,  and  in  1766  he 
formed  the  first  Methodist  Society  in  that  city,  composed 
of  his  own  countrymen  and  other  citizens.  In  1767  the  “ Old 
Rigging  Loft  ” was  opened  for  public  worship.  Congregations 
continued  to  increase.  It  was  then  that  Philip  Embury  was 
re-enforced  by  the  presence  and  labors  of  Captain  Thomas 
Webb,  a hero  of  the  English  army,  an  approved  and  eloquent 
lay  preacher. 

It  was  soon  proposed  to  erect  a Methodist  chapel  in  New 
York,  and  subscriptions  were  obtained  for  that  purpose  from 


540 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


about  two  Hundred  and  fifty  persons  in  that  city.  Captain 
W ebb  made  a princely  gift,  for  the  times,  of  £30,  and  Having 
extended  His  labors  to  I^ew  Jersey  and  tbe  City  of  PHiladel- 
phia.  He  obtained  at  tlie  latter  place  contributions  amounting 
to  £32  to  aid  in  tHe  erection  of  Wesley  CHapel,  N’ew  York. 
THe  subscription  list  recognized  JoHn  Wesley  as  tHe  founder 
of  MetHodism,  and  PHilip  Embury  as  “ a member  and  ‘ Helper  ’ 
in  tHe  gospel.” 

A lease  was  obtained  for  a lot  of  ground  on  JoHn-street, 
dated  MarcH  29,  1768,  in  wHicH  tbe  name  of  Mr.  Embury 
appears  as  one  of  tbe  lessees.  THe  first  MetHodist  preacHing- 
House  in  New  York  city  was  completed  and  occupied  October 
30,  1768.  PHilip  Embury,  tbe  Humble  carpenter  and  lay 
preacher — wHo  Had  built  the  pulpit  with  His  own  Hands — 
preached  the  first  sermon  from  Hosea  x,  12,  and  with  charac- 
teristic plainness  said  : “ The  best  consecration  of  a pulpit  was 
to  preach  a good  sermon  in  it.”  He  was  represented  to  Have 
been  a “ weeping  prophet,”  His  sermons  being  “ steeped  in  tears,” 
but  remarkably  effective. 

An  earnest  appeal  Having  been  made  to  JoHn  Wesley  for 
ministerial  assistance,  Richard  Boardman  and  Joseph  Pilmoor 
were  appointed  to  visit  America  with  a gift  of  £50,  to  aid  the 
first  Church  in  New  York.  These  two  lay  preachers  landed 
near  Philadelphia,  October  24,  1769.  Mr.  Boardman  found  a 
small  Society  in  that  city,  the  fruits  of  Captain  Webb’s  effect- 
ive ministry.  Mr.  Boardman  proceeded  to  New  York,  and 
was  soon  followed  by  Mr.  Pilmoor.  They  were  received  with 
joy  and  gladness,  by  PHilip  Embury  and  the  Society  which  he 
had  organized. 

By  virtue  of  their  appointment  by  Mr.  Wesley,  Boardman 
and  Pilmoor  properly  assumed  the  pastorate  of  John-street 
Church.  A deed  in  trust  was  obtained  for  the  property, 
dated  November  2,  1770,  the  conveyance-  being  made  to 
Richard  Boardman  and  Joseph  Pilmoor,  ministers  of  the 
.gospel,  and  five  other  persons,  not  including  Philip  Embury. 


Wesley  and  Lay  Preaching. 


541 


This  may  be  accounted  for  by  bis  removal  from  l^ew  York, 
and  not  from  want  of  proper  consideration  on  the  part  of 
the  English  preachers.  The  financial  account  of  John- 
street  Church  during  the  ministry  of  Philip  Embury  ex- 
hibits sundry  payments  to  him  for  carpenter’s  work,  and 
occasionally  small  sums  which  may  be  considered  as  presents 
for  his  pastoral  services.  The  last  entry,  April  10,  1770, 
was : “ To  cash  paid  Philip  Embury,  to  buy  a Concordance, 
£2.5s.”  A valuable  parting  gift,  for  the  times,  to  the 
“founder  of  Yew  York  Methodism.”  It  is  supposed  that 
during  the  early  summer  of  1770  Mr.  Embury  removed  to 
Camden,  now  a part  of  Washington  County,  Yew  York,  and 
formed  a Society  at  Ashgrove,  mostly  among  immigrants 
from  his  own  country.  He  was  highly  honored  in  the  com- 
munity, and  held  the  office  of  civil  magistrate.  He  continued 
to  preach  the  gospel  in  his  own  neighborhood  and  beyond.  In 
the  summer  of  1780,  while  mowing  in  his  field  about  seven 
miles  from  Ashgrove,  he  received  mortal  injury,  and  died  in  holy 
triumph.  Thus  suddenly  passed  away  “ the  first  lay  preacher 
in  the  colony  of  Yew  York.”  His  history  is  revered  and  hon- 
ored by  American  Methodism.  The  Yational  Association  of 
Local  Preachers  have  dedicated  a beautiful  monument  to  his 
memory  in  the  handsome  cemetery  at  Cambridge,  Yew  York, 
where  his  remains  were  re-interred. 

Maryland  authorities,  who  have  carefully  examined  Mr. 
Strawbridge’s  history,  have  published  that  he  commenced  his 
labors  in  his  own  dwelling,  to  which  his  neighbors  were  in- 
vited. A Methodist  Society  was  formed  in  Maryland  by 
Robert  Strawbridge  as  early  as  1762  or  1763;  and  soon  after, 
the  famous  “ Log  Meeting-house  ” was  erected  near  Sam’s 
Creek,  about  one  mile  from  his  residence.  This  humble 
chapel,  built  of  logs,  was  of  equal  character  with  many  of 
the  houses  occupied  by  the  early  settlers.  It  was  like  a “ block 
house,”  in  the  wilderness.  There  the  people  worshiped  God, 
and  many  seals  were  given  to  the  ministry  of  the  “ founder  of 


542 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Methodism  in  Maryland.”  The  chapel  was  never  completely 
finished.  Its  last  gnarled  log  was  taken  and  prepared  for  hon- 
orable use  in  the  magnificent  Metropolitan  Church,  in  Wash- 
ington city. 

The  27th  day  of  October,  1771,  is  an  important  epoch  in 
American  Methodism.  On  that  day  Francis  Asbury  and  Rich- 
ard Wright  arrived  in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Asbury  had  been  a 
local  preacher  for  several  years  while  working  at  his  avoca- 
tion ; and  subsequently  a traveling  preacher  for  a few  years 
under  Mr.  Wesley.  Mr.  Asbury  immediately  commenced  his 
active  ministry  in  Philadelphia,  Hew  York,  and  the  adjacent 
territory.  In  1772  he  was  designated  as  “ general  assistant  in 
America.” 

In  the  summer  or  autunm  of  1781,  and  before  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  had  closed,  while  Mr.  Strawbridge  was  making 
pastoral  calls  among  the  Methodists,  he  was  taken  suddenly  ill 
at  the  house  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Joseph  Wheeler,  near  Towson- 
town,  now  the  seat  of  Baltimore  County.  In  a few  days  the 
pioneer  Maryland  preacher  died  in  the  triumphs  of  faith.  An 
immense  concourse  of  the  friends  of  the  departed  hero  gathered 
at  his  mournful  funeral  services.  They  were  conducted  in  an 
extensive  yard  connected  with  the  dwelling  where  he  died, 
under  a large  spreading  walnut-tree.  Mr.  0 wings,  the  spirit- 
ual son  of  Mr.  Strawbridge,  and  the  first  native  local  preacher 
in  America,  delivered  the  funeral  sermon,  under  the  deepest 
emotion,  from  Rom.  xiv,  13.  The  place  of  burial  was  in  a 
large  private  grave-yard,  about  one  or  two  hundred  yards  dis- 
tant. The  solemn  procession  followed  the  corpse,  borne  on  the 
shoulders  of  four  men,  singing,  amid  floods  of  tears,  Charles 
Wesley’s  inimitable  hymn, 

“How  blest  is  our  brother,  bereft 

Of  all  that  could  burden  his  mind,”  etc. 

The  widow  of  Mr.  Strawbridge  died  a few  years  after,  and 
the  remains  of  husband  and  wife  reposed  in  adjoining  graves. 


Wesley  and  Lay  Peeaching. 


543 


\ritli  only  small,  unhewn  stones  to  mark  their  place  of  inter- 
ment. After  a lapse  of  about  eighty  years  their  wasted  forms 
were  carefully  disinterred  and  reburied  in  the  preachers’  lot  in 
Mount  Olivet  Cemetery,  near  Baltimore  City. 

The  centenary  of  American  Methodism,  celebrated  in  1866, 
was  mai’ked  by  the  presentation  to  the  president  of  the  Local 
Preachers’  Association  of  Baltimore  of  a large  and  appropriate 
marble  monument  in  memory  of  Robert  Strawbridge,  which 
was  dedicated  with  most  impressive  exercises.  It  stands  under 
the  shadow  of  the  massive  bishops’  monument,  bearing  the 
names  of  Bishops  Asbury,  George,  Emory,  and  Waugh.  In 
close  proximity  is  the  beautiful  and  costly  monument  in  mem- 
ory of  the  distinguished  Jesse  Lee,  the  greatest  Methodist 
leader  which  Virginia  ever  gave  to  the  Church  among  her 
many  worthy  sons.  If  memorial  inscriptions  on  monuments 
make  history,  then  Robert  Strawbridge  came  to  America  in 
1760,  began  to  preach  Christ  in  his  own  home  on  Sam’s  Creek, 
built  the  log  meeting-house  in  1764,  in  Frederick  County,  Md., 
the  first  in  America. 

In  support  of  the  foregoing  statements  only  one  witness. 
Bishop  Asbury,  will  be  produced.  On  April  30,  1801,  Bishop 
Asbury  dined  at  Alexander  Warfield’s,  on  Sam’s  Creek,  and 
pushed  on  to  the  house  of  that  eminent  minister,  Henry  Willis, 
on  Pipe  Creek,  where  a Conference  was  held.  He  then  adds : 
“ This  settlement  of  Pipe  Creek  is  the  richest  in  the  State. 
Here  Mr.  Strawbridge  formed  the  first  Society  in  Maryland — 
and  America^  Tlie  italic  is  his  own.  Let  it  be  remembered 
that  Bishop  Asbury  was  then  near  the  home  of  Mr.  Strawbridge 
and  amid  the  scenes  of  his  successful  ministry.  His  host,  Alex- 
ander Warfield,  was  a devoted  Methodist,  of  rare  intelligence, 
social  position,  and  of  unblemished  reputation.  Henry  Willis, 
at  whose  house  the  Conference  was  held,  was  one  of  the  ablest 
ministers  in  Methodism,  possessed  of  the  most  accurate  infor- 
mation. Forty  preachers,  including  William  Watters,  the  ex- 
horter  and  first  native  itinerant  preacher,  were  in  counsel  for 


544  The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 

four  days.  With  all  these  opportunities  he  made  the  entry 
above  recited,  that  Mr.  Strawbridge  formed  the  first  Society  in 
America.  This  was  not  an  entry  made  on  horse-back,  or  under 
the  fatigue  of  a long  day’s  journey.  He  was  writing  history. 

In  1815  Bishop  Asbury  revised  his  journal.  It  was  tran- 
scribed for  him  and  read  to  him  by  Francis  Hollingsworth. 
After  Asbury’s  death,  which  occurred  March  16,  1816,  Mr. 
Hollingsworth  superintended  its  publication.  In  the  Journal, 
as  thus  revised  by  the  Bishop,  it  is  again  recorded,  “ Robert 
Strawbridge  formed  the  first  Society  in  Maryland — and  Amer- 
ica.’’'’ The  itahcised  word  is  again  Asbury’s. 

Rational  peace  and  independence  having  been  proclaimed  in 
the  autumn  of  1Y84,  the  path  opened  for  another  providential 
arrangement.  John  Wesley  solemnly  ordained  Dr.  Thomas 
Coke,  one  of  his  early  and  devoted  fellow-laborers,  as  superin- 
tendent of  the  Societies  in  America,  with  directions  to  confer 
the  same  office  on  Francis  Asbury,  who  had  become  the  great 
leader  and  apostle  of  American  Methodism.  In  company  with 
Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Yasey,  who  had  been  ordained 
and  appointed  by  Mr.  Wesley,  Dr.  Coke  landed  in  America 
Rovember  3,  1T84. 

After  consultation  a General  Conference  of  the  American 
preachers  assembled  in  Lovely  Lane  Meeting-house,  Baltimore, 
December  25,  1784.  After  the  unanimous  election  by  the 
preachers  there  convened,  Francis  Asbury  was  ordained  a 
superintendent  or  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States.  Bishop  Coke  conducted  the  ordination, 
being  assisted  by  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Yasey,  (who 
were  elders  ordained  by  Mr.  Wesley,)  and  the  Rev.  William 
Otterbein,  who  was  the  first  superintendent  or  bishop  of 
the  United  Brethren  in  Christ — who  have  been  often  known 
as  German  Methodists. 

The  services  of  Bishop  Coke  in  America  were  highly  impor- 
tant, but  transitory  and  uncertain.  His  great  soul  was  mapping 
“ mission  stations,”  for  the  world.  He  died  suddenly  on  ship- 


Wesley  aistd  Lay  Preaching. 


545 


board  while  on  a missionary  tour  to  the  East  Indies,  when 
nearly  seventy  years  of  age.  Bishop  Asbury  often  pronounced 
him  a man  “ of  blessed  mind  and  soul ; a gentleman,  a scholar, 
and  a bishop ; and  as  a minister  of  Christ,  in  zeal,  in  labors, 
and  in  services,  the  greatest  man  of  the  last  century.”  When 
the  sea  shall  give  up  its  dead.  Bishop  Thomas  Coke  will  have 
part  in  the.first  resurrection. 

Many  great  and  mighty  men,  whose  names  and  deeds  the 
scope  and  Kmit  of  this  article  will  not  permit  us  to  record, 
have  adorned  and  illustrated  the  Methodist  itinerancy  in 
America.  They  were  the  successors  of  the  itinerant  preachers 
whom  Coke  and  Asbury  ordained.  A mighty  work  the  itin- 
erant preachers  have  wrought  both  in  Europe  and  America ! 
But  greatly  have  they  been  seconded  by  those  lay  preachers 
who  have  distinctively  been  called  locM  preachers.  These 
have  generally  remained  with  the  Church  at  home,  following 
secular  pursuits  for  their  support,  aiding  the  itinerant  preach- 
ers, and  oftentimes  preaching  the  gospel  where  the  itinerants 
could  not,  and  whenever  opportunity  showed  an  open  door. 
They  discovered  new  fields  of  labor  in  their  own  neighbor- 
hoods and  beyond.  To  the  Church  where  they  resided,  they 
were  often  class-leaders,  stewards,  and  trustees,  acting  in  har- 
mony with  the  traveling  ministry.  Others  removed  to  distant 
parts  of  the  country,  preaching  Christ  Jesus,  penetrating-  the 
wilderness,  and  forming  Societies  before  any  itinerant  minister 
had  explored  the  far-off  settlements.  They  cordially  welcomed 
the  early  Methodist  missionaries,  extending  to  them  food  and 
shelter,  and  acting  as  guides  over  rivers  and  through  the  gorges 
of  mighty  mountains.  Bishop  Asbury  styled  them,  “ his  best 
guides  and  companions.” 

In  1796  Bishop  Asbury  was  authorized  to  ordain  suitable 
local  preachers  as  deacons  in  the  Church.  Further  provision 
was  made  in  1812,  under  certain  qualifications,  for  the  ordina- 
tion of  local  deacons  to  the  office  of  elders  in  the  Church  of 
God. 


546 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


The  forms  of  ordination  of  deacons  and  elders  for  the  trav- 
eling and  local  ministry  are  identical.  The  solemn  vows  are 
taken  in  accordance  with  the  existing  or  future  duties  and 
relations  of  the  parties  severally  ordained,  hlo  preacher  of 
any  class  has  a right  to  ordination ; it  is  only  his  privilege,  if 
the  Church  authorities  deem  it  proper  to  confer  it. 

The  oneness  of  the  forms  of  ordination  is  wise  and  prudent. 
The  Methodist  ministry  is  one  of  occasional  and  necessary 
changes.  The  most  ardent,  outspoken  itinerant  minister  this 
year  may  locate  at  the  next  Conference,  as  many  in  former 
years  found  it  necessary  or  convenient  to  do.  The  local  min- 
ister this  year  may  supply  the  vacant  or  some  other  place  the 
ensuing  year.  Re-ordinations  in  case  of  such  Conference 
changes  form  no  part  of  American  Methodism. 

It  was  thus  that  lay  preaching,  as  a distinct  class  of 
Church  labor,  was  providentially  restored  by  Mr.  Wesley 
to  the  Church  of  Christ.  His  employment  of  John  Helson, 
the  humble  stone  mason,  as  a lay  preacher,  found  ample 
justification  in  the  examples  of  apostolic  times.  Saint  Luke 
was  the  “beloved  physician.”  Saint  Stephen,  the  proto- 
martyr of  the  Christian  Church,  was  chosen  by  the  apostles 
to  receive  and  distribute  the  alms  of  the  Church,  being  of 
“ honest  report,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  wisdom.”  Lay 
preacher  as  he  was  at  that  time,  he  “did  great  miracles  and 
wonders  among  the  people.”  With  his  face  shining  as  an 
angel  he  delivered  a lay  sermon  of  almost  unequaled  elo- 
quence and  power.  His  enemies,  unable  to  resist  or  answer 
it,  sent  him,  amid  a shower  of  stones,  to  receive  the  first 
martyr’s  crown ! Ananias,  a humble  lay  preacher,  and  not  an 
apostle,  was  commissioned  by  the  Lord  Jesus  to  visit,  instruct, 
and  baptize  Saul  of  Tarsus.  Saint  Paul,  the  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles,  was  a lay  preacher  before  the  apostles  knew  that 
he  was  a disciple.  When  his  temporal  necessities  required  it 
he  considered  it  no  degradation  of  his  sacred  office  to  labor 
with  his  own  hands  as  a tent  maker.  Thousands  of  lay 


"Wesley  ajstd  Lay  Peeachestg. 


547 


preachers  in  Europe  and  America  have  done  noble  work  for 
the  Chm’ch  of  God.  Many  of  their  honored  names  have 
perished  from  human  recollection.  I7o  “ Chni’ch  Memoirs  ” 
have  recorded  their  battles  for  the  Lord,  and  the  glorious 
victories  which  they  won  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  But 
they  are  written  in  the  “ Book  of  the  Battles  ” for  God  and 
Christianity.  

Note. — The  many  thousands  converted  to  God  through  the  instrumentality  of 
lay  preaching  has  demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  restoring  it  to  its  place  in  the 
Christian  Church,  and  vindicated  its  scriptural  claim.  The  successes  of  Methodism 
convincingly  attest  the  far-seeing  prescience  of  the  man  who  made  it  an  essential 
and  integral  part  of  the  Methodist  polity.  To  its  wondrous  effects  as  a vitalizing 
spiritual  force  and  powerful  auxiliary  to  the  regular  ministry,  not  only  has  the 
experience  of  Methodism,  but  the  experience  of  other  evangelisms,  borne  abundant 
witness.  For  in  some  form  or  other  lay  preaching,  from  Wesley’s  times  till  now, 
has  been  employed  by  nearly  all  the  evangelical  Churches,  and  largely  contributed 
to  their  success.  The  Church  of  England  itself  has  recently  and  formally  adopted 
it,  and  given  it  the  sanction  of  its  authority.  The  convocation  of  archbishops  and 
bishops,  which  met  in  1866  at  the  episcopal  palace  of  Lambeth,  restored,  as  it 
was  claimed,  the  “ order  of  lay  readers,”  from  which  order  Episcopal  writers 
tell  us  Mr.  Wesley  derived  his  plan  of  lay  preaching.  Indeed,  we  are  reminded 
that  the  “ order  of  lay  readers  ” — which,  it  is  said,  was  known  to  the  Church  of 
England  long  before  Mr.  Wesley’s  day,  but  which  had  fallen  into  disuse  in  the 
eighteenth  century — and  Wesley’s  lay  preachers  are  one  and  the  same  order.  For 
in  both  they  who  perform  the  service  are  laymen — men  set  apart  (and,  in  the  case 
of  the  lay  readers,  by  the  imposition  of  episcopal  hands)  to  read  and  expound  the 
holy  Scriptures  in  the  absence  of  the  regular  clergy,  and  under  their  direction. — 
Editob. 


WESLETS  DEATH  AND  CHARACTER. 


O siglit  on  earth  is  more  beautiful  than  that  of  sunset  in 


-.1  a cloudless  sky  ; and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  last 
days  of  a man  like  W esley.  Half  a century  had  elapsed  since 
he  had  founded  the  “ United  Societies  of  the  People  called 
Methodists ; ” and  during  that  interval  many  had  been  the 
counsels,  warnings,  and  exhortations,  he  had  addressed  to 
them.  His  last  '■‘■address^'  published  in  his  magazine  only 
three  months  before  his  death,  deserves  to  be  quoted.  The 
subject  of  it  is  of  vast  and  permanent  importance  ; and,  though 
its  language  is  strong — some  will  say  severe — it  evinces  the 
characteristic  faithfulness  and  boldness  of  the  man  : 

IIow  great  is  the  darkness  of  that  execrable  wretch,  (I  can  give  him 
no  better  title,  be  he  rich  or  poor,)  who  will  sell  his  own  cliild  to  the 
devil  1 Who  will  barter  her  own  eternal  happiness  for  any  quantity  of 
gold  or  silver!  What  a monster  would  any  man  be  accounted  w'ho 
devoured  the  flesh  of  his  owm  offspring!  And  is  not  he  as  great  a 
monster,  who,  by  his  own  act  and  deed,  gives  her  to  be  devoured  by 
that  roaring  lion?  as  he  certainly  does  (so  far  as  is  in  his  powmr)  w’ho 
marries  her  to'  an  ungodly  man.  “ But  he  is  rich : but  he  has  ten  thou- 
sand pounds  ! ” What  if  it  were  a hundred  thousand  ? The  more  the 
•worse ; the  less  probability  will  she  have  of  escaping  the  damnation  of 
hell.  With  what  faee  wilt  thou  look  upon  her  -vdien  she  tells  thee  in  the 
realms  below,  “Thou  hast  plunged  me  into  this  place  of  torment! 
Hadst  thou  given  me  to  a good  man,  however  poor,  I might  have  now 
been  in  Abraham’s  bosom!  But,  O!  what  have  riches  profited  me? 
They  have  sunk  both  me  and  thee  into  hell.” 

Are  any  of  you  that  are  called  Methodists  thus  merciful  to  your  chil- 
dren? Seeking  to  marry  them  well,  (as  the  cant  phrase  is;)  that  is,  to 
sell  them  to  some  purchaser  tliat  has  much  money  but  little  or  no  re- 
ligion? Are  ye,  too,  regarding  God  less  than  mammon?  Are  ye  also 
without  understanding?  Have  ye  profited  no  more  by  all  ye  have 


Wesley’s  Death  attd  Chaeacter, 


549 


heard  ? Man,  -woman,  think  -ff'hat  you  are  about ! Dare  you  also  sell 
TOur  child  to  the  devil  ? You  undoubtedly  do  this  (as  far  as  in  you  lies) 
■when  you  marry  a son  or  a daughter  to  a child  of  the  devil,  though  it  be 
one  that  -^vallows  in  gold  and  silver.  O take  warning  in  time ! Beware 
of  the  gilded  bait!  Death  and  hell  are  hid  beneath.  Prefer  grace 
before  gold  and  precious  stones;  glory  in  heaven  to  riches  on  earth.  If 
you  do  not,  you  are  worse  than  the  very  Canaanites.  They  only  made 
their  children  pass  through  the  fire  to  Moloch.  You  make  yours  pass  into 
the  fire  that  never  shall  be  quenched,  and  to  stay  in  it  forever!  O how 
great  is  the  darkness  that  causes  you,  after  you  have  done  this,  to  wipe 
your  mouth  and  say  you  have  done  no  evil! 

I call  upon  you  who  are  called  Methodists.  In  the  sight  of  the  great 
God,  upward  of  fifty  years  I have  ministered  unto  you;  I have  been 
your  servant  for  Christ’s  sake.  During  this  time  I have  given  you  many 
solemn  warnings  on  this  head.  I now  give  you  one  more,  perhaps  the 
last.  Dare  any  of  you,  in  choosing  your  calling  or  situation,  eye  the 
things  on  earth  rather  than  the  things  above?  In  choosing  a profession, 
nr  a companion  for  life  for  your  child,  do  you  look  at  earth  or  heaven  ? 
And  can  you  deliberately  prefer,  either  for  yourself  or  your  offspring,  a 
child  of  the  devil  with  money,  to  a child  of  God  without  it?  Why,  the 
very  heathens  cry  out,  ‘ ‘ 0 curves  in  terras  animoe,  et  celestium  inanes  I ” 
“0  souls  bowed  down  to  earth,  strangers  to  heaven!  ” 

Repent,  repent  of  your  vile  earthly-mindedness!  Renounce  the  title 
of  Christians,  or  prefer,  both  in  your  own  case  and  the  case  of  your 
children,  grace  to  money,  and  heaven  to  earth ! For  the  time  to  come, 
at  least,  let  your  eye  he  single,  that  your  whole  hody  may  he  full  of  light. 

This  -was  plain  speaking ; but  -who  -will  say  it  was  unneeded  ? 
And  if  it  was  necessary  in  the  days  of  Wesley,  how  much 
more  necessary  is  it  now  ! 

Wesley’s  near  approach  to  the  spirit-world  solemnized  but 
did  not  appall  him.  With  the  eye  of  faith  he  surveyed  its 
vast  scenes  and  endless  -visions.  He  mused  concerning  its 
inhabitants,  their  employment,  their  capabilities,  their  happi-' 
ness,  or  their  punishment.  He  seemed,  sometimes,  to  lose 
himself  in  the  midst  of  untold  wonders.  The  following  ex- 
tracts from  his  writings  amply  prove  all  this. 

The  first  are  taken  from  a sermon  written  about  fifteen 
months  before  his  death,  and  founded  upon  the  words  : “ Even 


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The  Wesley  Me.^iorial  Volume. 


like  as  a dream  when  one  aAvaketh,  so  shalt  thon  make  their 
image  to  vanish  out  of  the  city  and  it  is  a remarkable  fact, 
that,  at  the  very  time  when  Wesley’s  coffin  was  taken  into 
City  Hoad  Chapel,  previous  to  its  being  put  into  his  tomb, 
the  latter  part  of  this  striking  sermon  was  being  printed  for  his 
“ Arminian  Magazine.” 

Let  us  suppose  we  liar!  now  before  us  one  that  was  just  passed  into 
the  world  of  spirits.  Might  not  you  address  such  a new-born  soul  in 
some  such  manner  as  this  ? You  have  been  an  inhabitant  of  earth  forty, 
perhaps  fifty  or  sixty,  years.  But  now  God  has  uttered  his  voice,  “Awake, 
thou  that  sleepest!”  You  awake;  you  arise;  you  have  no  more  to 
do  with  these  poor,  transient  shadows.  Arise,  and  shake  thyself  from 
the  dust ! See,  all  is  real  here  ! All  is  permanent,  all  eternal ! Far 
more  stable  than  the  foundations  of  the  earth ; yea,  than  the  pillars  of 
that  lower  heaven!  Now  that  your  eyes  are  open,  see  how  inexpressilily 
different  are  all  the  things  that  are  now  round  about  you!  What  a 
difference  do  you  perceive  in  yourself!  Where  is  your  body?  Your 
house  of  clay  ? Where  are  your  limbs  ? Your  hands,  your  feet,  your 
head  ? There  they  lie;  cold,  and  insensible! 

What  a change  is  in  the  immortal  spirit!  You  see  every  thing  around 
you;  but  how?  Not  with  eyes  of  flcsli  and  blood!  You  hear:  but 
not  by  a stream  of  undulating  air,  striking  on  an  extended  membrane! 
You  feel;  but  in  how  wonderful  a manner!  You  have  no  nerves  to 
convey  the  ethereal  fire  to  the  common  sensory:  rather  are  you  not  now 
all  eye,  all  ear,  all  feeling,  all  perception  ? How  different,  now  you  are 
thoroughly  awake,  are  all  the  objects  round  about  you  1 Where  are  the 
liouses,  and  gardens,  and  fields,  and  cities,  which  you  lately  saw  ? 
Where  are  the  rivers  and  seas,  and  everlasting  hills? 

What  has  become  of  all  the  affairs  which  you  have  been  eagerly  en- 
gaged in  under  the  sun?  What  have  you  reaped  of  ail  your  labor  and 
care?  Does  your  money  follow  you?  No;  you  have  left  it  behind  you  : 
the  same  thing  to  you  as  if  it  had  vanished  into  air.  Does  your  gay  or 
rich  apparel  follow  you?  No ; your  body  is  clothed  with  dust  and  rot- 
tenness. Your  soul  is  indeed  clothed  with  immortality:  but,  O!  what 
immortality!  Is  it  an  immortality  of  happiness  and  glory?  or  of  shame 
and  everlasting  contempt  ? Where  is  the  honor,  the  pomp  of  the  rich 
and  great?  The  applause  that  surrounded  you?  All  gone!  All  are 
vanished  away,  liTce  as  a shadow  that  departeth. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Character, 


551 


Where  is  all  your  business?  Where  your  worldly  cares?  Tour 
troubles  or  engagements?  All  these  things  are  fled  away;  and  only 
your  soul  is  left.  And  how  is  it  qualified  for  the  enjoyment  of  this  new 
world?  Has  it  a relish  for  the  objects  and  enjoyments  of  the  invisible 
world?  Are  your  affections  loosened  from  things  below,  and  fixed  on 
things  above?  Fixed  on  that  place,  where  Jesus  sitteth  on  the  right 
hand  of  God? 

How  do  you  relish  the  company  that  surrounds  you?  Your  old  com- 
panions are  gone:  are  your  present  companions  angels  of  light?  Min- 
istering spirits,  that  but  now  whispered,  “Sister  spirit,  come  away!” 
And  what  are  those?  Some  of  the  souls  of  the  righteous,  whom  you 
formerly  relieved  with  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness  ? Happy  spirits 
that  traveled  with  you  below,  and  bore  a part  in  your  temptations? 
That  together  with  you  fought  the  good  fight  of  faith,  and  laid  hold  on 
eternal  life?  As  you  then  wept  together,  you  may  rejoice  together;  you 
and  your  guardian  angels,  perhaps,  in  order  to  increase  your  thankful- 
ness for  being  delivered  from  so  great  a death. 

These  are  strange  nausings;  and  yet,  to  a man  in  Wesley’s 
position,  they  were  natural.  He  was  on  the  verge  of  the 
eternal  world,  toward  which  he  had  been  traveling  for  more 
than  fourscore  years.  He  was  about  to  enter  it.  He  was 
solemnized.  He  paused.  He  looked  across  the  border.  He 
meditated.  He  was  thrilled  with  religious  awe. 

The  next  extracts  are  taken  from  the  last  sermon  Wesley 
penned.  The  text  was,  “ How  faith  is  the  evidence  of  things 
not  seen.”  Wesley  writes ; — 

Faith  is,  in  one  sense  of  the  word,  a divine  conviction  of  God  and  of 
the  things  of  God:  in  another,  nearly  related  to,  yet  not  altogether  the 
same,  it  is  a divine  conviction  of  the  invisible  and  eternal  world.  In 
this  sense  I would  now  consider — 

I am  now  an  immortal  spirit,  strangely  connected  with  a little  portion 
of  earth;  but  this  is  only  for  awhile.  In  a short  time  I am  to  quit 
this  tenement  of  clay,  and  to  remove  into  another  state, 

“ which  the  living  know  not. 

And  the  dead  cannot,  or  they  may  not,  tell ! ” 

What  kind  of  existence  shall  I then  enter  upon,  when  my  spirit  has 

launched  out  of  the  body?  how  shall  I feel  myself — perceive  my  own 
35 


552 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


being  ? How  shall  I discern  the  things  round  about  me,  either  material 
or  spiritual  objects?  When  my  eyes  no  longer  transmit  the  rays  of 
light,  how  will  the  naked  spirit  see?  When  the  organs  of  hearing  are 
moldered  into  dust,  in  what  manner  shall  I hear?  When  the  brain  is 
of  no  furtlier  use,  what  means  of  thinking  shall  I have?  When  my 
whole  body  is  resolved  into  senseless  earth,  what  means  shall  I have  of 
gaining  knowledge  ? 

How  strange,  how  incomprehensible,  are  the  means  whereby  I shall 
then  take  knowledge  even  of  the  material  world ! Will  things  appear 
then  as  they  do  now?  Of  the  same  size,  shape,  and  color?  Or  will 
they  be  altered  in  any,  or  all  these  respects?  How  will  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  appear?  The  sublunary  heavens  ? The  planetary  heavens? 
The  region  of  the  fixed  stars?  How  the  fields  of  ether,  which  we  may 
conceive  to  be  millions  of  miles  beyond  them?  Of  all  this  we  know 
nothing  yet;  and,  indeed,  we  need  to  know  nothing. 

What,  then,  can  we  know  of  those  innumerable  objects  which  properly 
belong  to  the  invisible  world ; which  mortal  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  our  heart  to  conceive?  What  a scene 
will  then  be  opened,  when  the  regions  of  hades  are  displayed  without  a 
covering ! 

There  is  “ a great  gulf  fixed  ” in  hades,  between  the  place  of  the  holy 
and  that  of  unholy  spirits,  which  it  is  impossible  for  either  the  one  or 
the  other  to  pass  over.  But  who  can  inform  us  in  what  part  of  the 
universe  hades  is  situated?  This  abode  of  both  happy  and  unhappy 
spirits  till  they  are  reunited  to  their  bodies?  It  has  not  pleased  God  to 
reveal  any  thing  concerning  it  in  the  Holy  Scripture,  and,  consequently, 
it  is  not  possible  for  us  to  form  any  judgment,  or  even  conjecture, 
about  it. 

Neither  are  we  informed  how  either  happy  or  finhappy  spirits  are  em- 
ployed during  the  time  of  their  abode  there ; yet  may  we  not  probably 
suppose  that  the  Governor  of  the  world  may  sometimes  permit  wicked 
souls  “to  do  his  gloomy  errands  in  the  deep?”  Or,  perhaps,  in  con- 
junction with  evil  angels,  to  inflict  vengeance  on  wicked  men  ? Or  will 
many  of  them  be  shut  up  in  chains  of  darkness  unto  the  judgment  of 
the  great  day  ? In  the  meantime,  may  we  not  probably  suppose  that 
the  spirits  of  the  just,  though  generally  lodged  in  paradise,  may  some- 
times, in  conjunction  with  holy  angels,  minister  to  the  heirs  of  salva- 
tion ? May  they  not 

“ Sometimes,  on  errands  of  love, 

Revisit  their  brethren  below  ? ” 


Wesley’s  Death  ahd  Chaeactee. 


553 


But,  be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  human  spirits  swiftly  increase  in 
knowledge,  in  holiness,  and  in  happiness;  conversing  with  all  the  wise 
and  holy  souls  that  lived  in  all  ages  and  nations  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world ; with  angels  and  archangels,  to  whom  the  children  of  men. 
are  no  more  than  infants ; and,  above  all,  with  the  eternal  Son  of  God, 
in  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  And,  let 
it  be  especially  considered,  whatever  they  learn  they  will  retain  forever, 
for  they  forget  nothing.  To  forget  is  only  incident  to  spirits  that  are 
clothed  with  flesh  and  blood. 

How  will  this  material  universe  appear  to  a disembodied  spirit  ? Who 
can  tell  whether  any  of  these  objects  that  surround  us  will  appear  the 
same  as  they  do  now  ? And,  if  we  know  so  little  of  these,  what  can  we 
know  concerning  objects  of  a quite  different  nature? — concerning  the 
spiritual  world  ? It  seems  it  will  not  be  possible  for  us  to  discern  them 
at  all  till  we  are  furnished  with  senses  of  a different  nature,  which  are 
not  yet  opened  in  our  souls.  These  may  enable  us  both  to  penetrate  the 
inmost  substance  of  things,  whereof  we  now  discern  only  the  surface, 
and  to  discern  innumerable  things  of  the  very  existence  whereof  we 
have  not  now  the  least  perception.  What  astonishing  scenes  will  then 
discover  themselves  to  our  newly-opening  senses  I Probably  fields  of 
ether,  not  only  tenfold,  but  ten  thousand  fold,  “the  length  of  this  ter- 
rene!” And  with  what  variety  of  furniture,  animate  and  inanimate! 
How  many  orders  of  beings,  not  discovered  by  organs  of  flesh  and 
blood!  Perhaps,  “Thrones,  dominions,  virtues,  princedoms,  powers!” 
And  shall  we  not  then,  as  far  as  angels  can,  survey  the  bounds  of  crea- 
tion, and  see  every  place  where  the  Almighty 

“ Stopped  his  rapid  wheels,  and  said. 

This  be  thy  just  circumference,  0 world  ? ” 

Tea,  shall  we  not  be  able  to  move,  quick  as  thought,  through  the  wide 
realms  of  uncreated  night  ? Above  all,  the  moment  we  step  into  eternity 
shall  we  not  feel  ourselves  swallowed  up  of  Him  who  is  in  this  and 
every  place — who  filleth  heaven  and  earth  ? It  is  only  the  veil  of  flesh 
and  blood  which  now  hinders  us  from  perceiving  that  the  great  Creator 
cannot  but  fill  the  whole  immensity  of  space.  He  is  every  moment  above 
us,  beneath  us,  and  on  every  side.  Indeed,  in  this  dark  abode,  tiiis  land 
of  shadows,  this  region  of  sin  and  death,  the  thick  cloud  which  is  inter- 
posed between  conceals  him  from  our  sight.  But  the  veil  will  disap- 
pear, and  he  will  appear  in  unclouded  majesty,  “God  over  all,  blessed 
forever!  ” 


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Who  knows  how  we  shall  be  employed  after  we  enter  the  invisible 
world  ? What  may  be  the  employment  of  unholy  spirits  from  death  to 
the  resurrection  ? We  cannot  doubt  but  the  moment  they  leave  the 
body  they  find  themselves  surrounded  by  spirits  of  their  own  kind, 
probably  human  as  well  as  diabolical.  What  power  God  may  permit 
these  to  exercise  over  them  we  do  not  distinctly  know  ; but,  it  is  not  im- 
probable, he  may  suffer  Satan  to  employ  them,  as  he  does  his  own  angels, 
in  inflicting  deatli,  or  evils  of  various  kinds,  on  the  men  that  know  not 
God.  For  this  end,  they  may  raise  storms  by  sea  or  by  land  ; they  may 
shoot  meteors  through  the  air;  they  may  occasion  earthquakes,  and,  in 
numberless  w’ays,  afflict  those  whom  they  are  not  suffered  to  destroy. 
Where  they  are  not  permitted  to  take  away  life,  they  may  inflict  various 
diseases ; and  many  of  these,  which  we  judge  to  be  natural,  are  un- 
doubtedly diabolical.  I believe  this  is  frequently  the  case  with  lunatics. 
It  is  observable  that  many  of  those  mentioned  in  Scripture,  who  are 
called  lunatics  by  one  of  the  evangelists,  are  termed  demoniacs  by 
another.  May  not  some  of  these  evil  spirits  be  likewise  employed,  in 
conjunction  with  evil  angels,  in  tempting  wicked  men  to  sin,  and  in 
procuring  occasion  for  them  ? Yea,  and  in  tempting  good  men  to  sin, 
even  after  they  have  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world  ? 

Meantime,  how  may  we  conceive  the  inhabitants  of  the  other  part  of 
hadei,  the  souls  of  the  righteous,  to  be  employed?  May  we  not  say  that 
these  servants  of  God,  as  well  as  the  holy  angels,  “do  his  pleasure,” 
whether  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  or  in  any  other  part  of  his 
dominions  ? And,  as  we  easily  believe  that  they  are  swifter  than  the 
light,  even  as  swift  as  thought,  they  are  well  able  to  traverse  the  whole 
universe  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  either  to  execute  the  divine  com- 
mands or  to  contemplate  the  works  of  God.  What  a field  is  here 
opened  before  them ! And  how  immensely  may  they  increase  in  knowl- 
edge while  they  survey  his  works  of  creation,  or  providence,  or  his  man- 
ifold wisdom  in  the  Church ! What  depth  of  wisdom,  of  power,  and  of 
goodness  do  they  discover  in  his  methods  of  bringing  many  sons  to 
glory! — especially  while  they  converse  on  any  of  these  subjects  with  the 
illustrious  dead  of  ancient  days ! — with  Adam,  first  of  men ; with  Noah, 
who  saw  both  the  primeval  and  the  ruined  world ; with  Abraham,  the 
friend  of  God;  with  Moses,  who  was  favored  to  speak  with  God,  as  it 
were  face  to  face;  with  Job,  perfected  by  sufferings;  with  Samuel, 
David,  Solomon,  Isaiah,  Daniel,  and  all  the  prophets  ! — with  the  apostles, 
the  noble  army  of  martyrs,  and  all  the  saints  who  have  lived  and  died  to 
the  present  day ! — with  our  elder  brethren,  the  holy  angels,  cherubim. 


Wesley’s  Death  aistd  Chaeactee. 


555 


serapliim,  and  all  the  companies  of  heaven ! — above  all,  with  Jesus,  the 
Mediator  of  the  new  covenant!  Meantime,  how  will  they  advance  in' 
holiness,  in  the  whole  image  of  God,  wherein  they  were  created  I — in  the 
love  of  God  to  man,  gratitude  to  their  Creator,  and  benevolence  to  all 
their  fellow-creatures ! 

These  are  long  extracts,  but  they  are  important  as  showing  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  with  which  the  aged  Wesley  approached 
the  vast  spirit  world.  The  remarkable  sermon  from  which 
the  extracts  are  taken  is  dated  “ London,  January  17th,  1791,” 
only  six  weeks  before  his  entrance  into  that  unseen  realm  con- 
cerning which  he  mused  so  deeply  and  devoutly.  I7othing 
need  be  said  about  the  strength  of  mind  and  the  vigorous 
writing  of  “ the  old  man  eloquent,”  now  approaching  the  age 
of  eighty-eight.  All  that  is  here  attempted  is  to  show  his 
frame  of  mind  and  heart  when  he  was  about  to  die. 

ISTot  much  is  known  of  Wesley’s  labors  during  the  last  six 
weeks  of  his  eventful  life.  He  continued  to  preach,  and  he 
wrote  a number  of  interesting  letters,  one  of  which  may  be 
appropriately  inserted  here.  It  was  addressed  to  Ezekiel 
Cooper,  the  son  of  an  officer  in  the  army  of  the  American 
Hevolution,  and  who  was  now  twenty-eight  years  of  age  and  a 
Methodist  preacher  at  Annapolis,  Md. ; a man  of  great  mental 
vigor  and  versatility,  almost  unequaled  in  debate,  and  called — 
because  of  his  profound  wisdom — by  the  American  Methodists, 
Lycurgusj  a diligent  student,  and  a close  observer  of  men  and 
things,  who  died  in  1847,  being  at  the  time  of  his  decease  the 
oldest  Methodist  preacher  in  the  world.  When  he  entered  the 
ministry,  in  1784,  the  Methodists  in  America  had  eighty-three 
preachers  and  fifteen  thousand  members ; when  he  died,  the 
number  of  their  preachers  was  five  thousand,  and  of  their 
members  above  a million.  To  Ezekiel  Cooper  AVesley  wrote 
as  follows ; 

Near  London,  February  1,  1791. 

Mt  dear  Brother: — Those  that  desire  to  -write  or  say  any  thing  to 
me  have  no  time  to  lose,  for  Time  has  shaken  me  by  the  hand,  and  Death 


556 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


is  not  far  behind.  But  I have  reason  to  be  thankful  for  the  time  that  is 
past.  I felt  few  of  the  infirmities  of  old  age  for  fourscore  and  six  years. 
It  was  not  till  a year  and  a half  ago  that  my  strength  and  my  sight  failed ; 
and  still  I am  enabled  to  scrawl  a little,  and  to  creep,  though  I cannot 
run.  Probably  I should  not  be  able  to  do  so  much,  did  not  many  of  you 
assist  me  by  your  prayers. 

I have  given  a distinct  account  of  the  work  of  God,  which  has  been 
wrought  in  Britain  and  Ireland,  for  more  than  half  a century.  We  want 
some  of  you  to  give  us  a connected  relation  of  what  our  Lord  has  been 
doing  in  America  since  the  time  that  Eichard  Boardman  accepted  the 
invitation,  and  left  his  country  to  serve  you.  See  that  you  never  give 
place  to  one  thought  of  separating  from  your  brethren  in  Europe.  Lose 
no  opportunity  of  declaring  to  all  men  that  the  Methodists  are  one  people 
in  all  the  world,  and  that  it  is  their  full  determination  so  to  continue, — 

“ Though  mountains  rise,  and  oceans  roll. 

To  sever  us  in  vain.” 

To  the  care  of  our  common  Lord  I commit  you,  and  am  your  affection- 
ate friend  and  brother,  John  Wesley. 

Such  was  Wesley’s  dying  exhortation  to  the  transatlantic 
Methodists.  It  is  somewhat  strange  that  he  should  write  to 
Ezekiel  Cooper,  a young  man  of  twenty-eight,  whom  he  had 
never  seen,  for  “a  connected  relation  of  what  our  Lord  had 
been  doing  in  America,”  rather  than  to  Francis  Asbury,  whom 
Wesley,  in  1784,  had  appointed  to  be  “joint  superintendent” 
with  Dr.  Coke  of  the  Methodists  “ in  ISTorth  America.”  Per- 
haps the  reason  was,  because  Coke  and  Asbury  had  greatly 
offended  him  by  calling  themselves  hishops.^ 

F or  sixty-five  years  W esley  had  been  an  earnest,  laborious,  and 
marvelously  successful  preacher  of  “ the  glorious  gospel  of  the 
blessed  God  ; ” and,  notwithstanding  his  extreme  age  and  fee- 
bleness, he  continued  in  his  beloved  employ  until  within  seven 
days  of  his  decease.  In  a pamphlet,  published  soon  afterward. 


* Touching  the  question  suggested  by  the  above  remark,  Methodist  writers — ■ 
especially  in  this  volume — have  agreed  to  disagree.  It  is  no  longer  a question  tor 
acrimonious  debate. — Editor. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Charactee.  557 

entitled  “ A Short  Account  of  the  Late  Rev.  J.  Wesley,  A.M., 
during  the  Two  Last  Weeks  of  his  Life,”  it  is  stated  : — 

For  some  time  before  Mr.  Wesley  was  taken  to  bis  reward  his  strength 
was  evidently  on  the  decline;  and  his  friends  had  apprehensions  of  his 
approaching  dissolution.  His  conversation  also  indicated  a presenti- 
ment of  his  death.  He  frequently  spoke  of  the  state  of  separate  spirits, 
and  seemed  desirous  to  know  their  particular  employments.  His  preach- 
ing during  the  last  winter  was  attended  with  uncommon  unction,  and 
he  often  spoke,  both  in  his  sermons  and  exhortations,  as  if  each  time 
was  to  be  his  last,  and  desired  the  people  to  receive  what  he  advanced  as 
his  dying  charge.  It  is  also  worthy  of  remark,  that  for  three  months 
before  his  last  sickness  there  were  scarcely  three  evenings  passed  to- 
gether that  he  did  not  sing  at  family  worship  the  following  verses : — 

Shrinking  from  the  cold  hand  of  death, 

I too  shall  gather  up  my  feet ; 

Shall  soon  resign  this  fleeting  breath. 

And  die,  my  fathers’  God  to  meet. 

Numbered  among  thy  people,  I 
Expect  with  joy  thy  face  to  see : 

Because  thou  didst  for  sinners  die, 

Jesus,  in  death  remember  me  ! 

0 that  without  a lingering  groan 
I may  the  welcome  word  receive ; 

My  body  with  my  charge  lay  down. 

And  cease  at  once  to  work  and  live ! 

During  tke  last  two  winters  Miss  Ritchie,  of  Otley,  had  been 
a guest  in  Wesley’s  house,  in  City  Road;  and  she  came  again 
in  the  month  of  hTovember,  1790.  Her  friend.  Miss  Roe,  (at 
that  time  married  to  the  Rev.  James  Rogers,)  resided  there, 
but  ill-health  prevented  her  occupying  her  usual  place  in  the 
domestic  circle.  Hence,  at  Wesley’s  pressing  invitation.  Miss 
Ritchie  undertook  Mrs.  Rogers’  duties.  “ I found,”  says  she, 
“ sufficient  business  on  my  hands.  The  preacher  who  usually 
read  to  Mr.  Wesley  being  absent,  he  said  to  me,  ‘Betsy,  you 
must  be  eyes  to  the  blind.’  I therefore  rose  every  morning 
about  half  past  five  o’clock,  and  generally  read  to  him  from  six 
till  breakfast  time.  During  the  three  months  I passed  under 
his  roof,  his  spirit  seemed  all  love.  He  breathed  the  air  of  par- 


558  The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 

adise.  Often  adverting  to  the  state  of  separate  spirits,  he 
would  observe,  ‘ Can  we  suppose  that  this  active  mind,  which 
animates  and  moves  the  dull  matter  with  which  it  is  clogged, 
will  be  less  active  when  set  free  ? Surely,  no ; it  will  be  all 
activity.  But  what  will  be  its  employments  ? Who  can 
tell  ? ’ ” 

To  Miss  Ritchie  the  Methodists  are  indebted  for  the  most 
circumstantial  account  of  the  close  of  Wesley’s  life  that  was 
ever  published.  It  was  dated  “ISTew  Chapel,  City  Road,  March 
8,  1Y91,”  and  was  entitled,  “An  Authentic  Narrative  of  the 
Circumstances  relative  to  the  Departure  of  the  late  Rev.  John 
Wesley.”  It  begins  with  the  last  week  of  Wesley’s  public 
labors,  and  from  it,  and  from  other  sources,  the  following  par- 
ticulars are  gleaned. 

Cn  Thursday,  February  17,  1791,  he  preached  at  Lambeth, 
then  a thriving  suburban  village,  from  the  text,  “ Labor  not  for 
the  meat  which  perisheth,  but  for  that  meat  which  endureth 
unto  everlasting  life.”  After  preaching,  upward  of  fifty  per- 
sons met  for  the  renewal  of  their  quarterly  tickets.  The  brave 
old  man  spoke  to  about  twenty-five  of  them,  but  was  obliged 
to  leave  the  remainder  to  James  Rogers,  his  companion.  Cn 
reaching  City  Road  he  seemed  to  be  unwell,  and  said  he  had 
taken  cold. 

Friday,  the  18th,  he  read  and  wrote,  as  usual ; and  at  night, 
accompanied  by  James  Rogers,  went  to  Chelsea,  and  preached 
in  one  of  the  dancing  rooms  of  the  notorious  Ranelagh  Gar- 
dens, which  had  been  converted  into  a Methodist  meeting- 
house. His  text  was,  “ The  king’s  business  required  haste,” 
a text  which  his  own  long  life  had  illustrated.  Three  or  four 
times  during  the  service  he  was  obliged  to  stop,  and  to  tell  the 
congregation  that  his  cold  so  affected  his  voice  as  to  prevent 
his  speaking  without  these  necessary  pauses.  After  the  sermon, 
he  retired  into  the  vestry  till  Mr.  Rogers  had  met  nearly  forty 
members  to  renew  their  tickets.  When  this  was  ended,  Wesley 
was  so  exhausted  that  he  could  hardly  get  into  his  chaise. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chaeactek. 


559 


Saturday,  the  19th,  was  principally -employed  in  reading  and 
writing ; but  he  went  out  to  dinner,  at  Mrs.  Griffith’s,  Ishng- 
ton.  During  his  visit  he  desired  a friend  to  read  to  him  the 
fourth  and  three  following  chapters  of  the  book  of  Job,  con- 
taining the  speech  of  Eliphaz  and  the  answer  of  Job,  and  strik- 
ingly appropriate  to  the  case  of  a dying  man.  He  had  pur- 
posed to  conduct  the  usual  weekly  meeting  of  penitents  at  City 
Road  in  the  evening,  but  allowed  Robert  Carr  Brackenbury,  a 
supernumerary  preacher,  to  take  his  place. 

Rext  morning,  Sunday,  the  20th,  he  rose  at  his  accustomed 
hour,  and  intended  to  preach,  but  was  quite  unfit  for  the  Sab- 
bath services.  At  seven  o’clock  he  was  obliged  to  lie  down 
again.  After  sleeping  between  three  and  four  hours  he  roused 
himself,  but  in  the  afternoon  had  again  to  go  to  bed.  In  the 
evening  he  revived,  and,  at  his  request,  two  of  his  own  dis- 
courses on  our  Lord’s  Sermon  on  the  Mount  were  read  to  him. 
He  then  came  down  stairs  and  had  supper  with  Mr.  Rogers 
and  his  family. 

On  Monday,  the  21st,  he  appeared  to  be  better,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  remonstrance  of  his  friends,  would  fulfill  an  en- 
gagement he  had  made  to  dine  at  Twickenham,  a journey, 
there  and  back,  of  twenty-six  miles.  On  his  way  he  called 
upon  Lady  Mary  Fitzgerald,  a noble  Methodist,  daughter  of 
Jolm,  Lord  Harvey,  and  granddaughter  of  John,  Earl  of  Bris- 
tol. “ His  conversation  with  her  ladyship  and  his  prayer  were 
memorable,”  says  Miss  Ritchie,  “ and  well  became  a last  visit.” 

On  Tuesday,  the  22d,  he  dined  at  Islington  with  one  of  the 
executors  of  his  will,  Mr.  John  Horton,  a merchant,  and  one  of 
the  members  of  the  Common  Council  of  the  city  of  London. 
At  night  he  preached  his  last  sermon  in  City  Road  Chapel 
from  the  words,  “We  through  the  Spirit  wait  for  the  hope  of 
righteousness  by  faith.”  Mr.  Rogers  says  the  sermon  was  “ ex- 
cellent.” After  the  sermon  he  met  the  leaders  of  the  Society. 

At  Leatherhead,  a village  eighteen  miles  from  London,  there 
resided  a gentleman  who  had  lately  lost  his  wife.  Up  to  the 


560 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


present  he  and  Wesley  had  never  seen  each  other.  In  his  dis- 
tress the  bereaved  widower  invited  Wesley  to  visit  him  ; and 
accordingly,  notwithstanding  his  feebleness  and  the  wintry 
weather,  Wesley,  on  Wednesday,  the  23d,  set  out  on  this 
lengthy  journey,  which  turned  out  to  be  his  last.  James  Rog- 
ers accompanied  him,  and  wrote,  “ In  less  than  two  hours  after 
our  arrival  our  kind  host,  who  was  a magistrate,  and  well  be- 
loved in  the  neighborhood,  sent  his  servants  to  invite  the  inhab- 
itants to  hear  Mr.  Wesley  preach.  A considerable  number 
soon  assembled,  and  were  ordered  up-stairs  into  a spacious  din- 
ing-room, covered  with  a beautiful  carpet,  and  set  round  with 
fine  mahogany  chairs.  The  plain  country  people,  who  had 
come  plodding  through  the  mire,  seemed  rather  out  of  their 
element ; but  they  all  appeared  to  hear  with  deep  attention 
while  Mr.  Wesley  gave  them  a most  solemn  warning  from  the 
words,  “ Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found,  call  ye 
upon  him  while  he  is  near : let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 
and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts : and  let  him  return 
unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him ; and  to  our 
God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon.” 

This  was  Wesley’s  last  sermon;  and,  like  many  of  his  ser- 
mons, was  preached  under  unusual  circumstances.  There  was 
no  Methodist  Society  at  Leatherhead.  He  had  never  preached 
there  before.  Methodistically  speaking,  he  had  no  interest  in 
the  place.  He  was  tottering  on  the  brink  of  his  own  sepul- 
chre, and  was  far  more  fit  to  be  in  bed  than  to  undertake  a 
journey  of  nearly  forty  miles  in  the  depth  of  winter.  But 
then  there  was  a bereaved  gentleman  in  great  distress,  who 
urgently  desired  to  see  him.  That  was  quite  enough ; and 
away  the  old  man  went,  and  closed  his  long  and  illustrious  min- 
istry in  the  gentleman’s  upstairs  dining-room.  Wesley’s  last 
sermon  was  preached  in  this  dining-room  to  a congregation 
small  and  rustic,  and  comprised  of  only  two  who  were  Meth- 
odists, or  who  had  ever  seen  him  until  now — James  Rogers,  the 
“assistant”  at  City  Road,  and  Richard  Summers,  the  driver  of 


Wesley’s  Death  ahd  Chaeacter. 


561 


Wesley’s  chaise.  The  three  drank  tea  with  the  clergyman  of 
the  village,  in  whose  house  they  also  slept. 

On  Thursday,  February  24th,  Wesley,  as  usual,  rose  at  four 
o’clock,  and  drove  as  far  as  Balliam,  then  a small,  beautiful  vil- 
lage five  miles  distant  from  the  city.  There  he  halted  at  the 
residence  of  Mr.  George  Wolff,  the  Danish  consul  in  England, 
and  another  of  the  appointed  executors  of  Wesley’s  will.  This 
was  one  of  the  veteran’s  favorite  retreats,  where,  twelve  months 
before,  he  had  written  his  terribly  faithful  sermon  on  “ God 
said  unto  him.  Thou  fool!”  During  his  present  visit  James 
Eogers  read  to  him  an  account  of  “ the  sufferings  of  the  ne- 
groes in  the  West  Indies,”  after  which  he  immediately  wrote 
his  well-known  letter — the  last  he  ever  penned — to  Wilberforce 
on  slavery.  For  about  sixty  years  he  had  been  accustomed  to 
note  his  daily  doings  in  his  journals,  and  here,  at  Balham,  he 
made  his  last  entry  in  these  remarkable  productions. 

On  Friday,  February  25,  he  again  rose  at  four  o’clock, 
and  seemed  to  be  in  better  health.  At  breakfast  there  was  a 
sudden  change,  and  Mr.  Rogers  became  extremely  anxious  to 
get  him  home.  Accordingly  Mrs.  Wolff  drove  him  in  her 
coach  to  City  Road.  Miss  Ritchie  was  waiting  to  receive  him, 
and  was  struck  with  the  alteration  that  had  taken  place.  He 
managed  to  walk  up  stairs.  Miss  Ritchie  ran  for  some  refresh- 
ment ; but,  before  she  could  bring  it,  Wesley  had  requested 
Mr.  Rogers  to  leave  the  room,  and  “ desired  not  to  be  inter- 
rupted for  half  an  hour  by  any  one,”  adding,  “ not  even  if 
Joseph  Bradford  come.”  Joseph  did  come  a few  minutes 
after ; but,  of  course,  this  jidus  Achates  did  not  dare  to  enter 
until  the  half  hour  was  ended.  Mr.  Bradford  found  his  chief 
extremely  ill,  and  immediately  requested  Miss  Ritchie  to  bring 
him  wine  mulled  with  spices.  Wesley  drank  a little  and  seemed 
sleepy.  He  then  became  sick,  vomited,  and  said,  ‘‘  I must  lie 
down.”  His  attendants  were  alarmed  and  sent  for  Dr.  White- 
head.  On  his  entering  the  room  the  old  man  smiled  and  said, 
“ Doctor,  they  are  more  afraid  than  hurt.” 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Tlie  dying  patriarch,  even  now,  hardly  thought  his  work 
was  ended.  In  fact,  only  a week  ago,  he  had  written  to  Mrs. 
Knapp,  of  Worcester,  informing  her  that  he  purposed  to 
set  out  from  London  to  Bristol,  on  his  long  journey,  on 
February  25,  and  that  he  hoped  to  reach  Worcester  about 
March  22. 

Until  Sunday  morning,  February  27,  his  time  was  princi- 
pally passed  in  bed.  He  was  full  of  fever,  the  pulse  was  quick, 
and  there  was  constant  drowsiness.  He  spoke  but  little  ; and 
if  roused  to  answer  a question,  or  to  take  refreshment,  (which 
was  seldom  more  than  a spoonful  at  a time,)  he  soon  dozed 
again. 

On  Sunday  morning  he  seemed  much  better,  and,  with  a 
little  of  Joseph  Bradford’s  help,  got  up,  took  a cup  of  tea,  sat 
in  his  chair,  looked  cheerful,  and  repeated,  from  one  of  his 
brother’s  hymns — 

“ Till  glad  I lay  this  body  down, 

Thy  servant,  Lord,  attend  ; 

And  O,  my  life  of  mercy  crown 
With  a triumphant  end  ! ” 

Soon  after,  with  marked  emphasis,  he  said  : “ Our  friend 
Lazarus  sleepeth.”  He  tried  to  converse  with  his  assembled 
friends,  but  was  quickly  exhausted  and  obliged  to  lie  down. 
“ Speak  to  me,”  he  said,  after  a little  quiet.  “ Speak  to  me,  I 
cannot  speak.”  His  niece.  Miss  Wesley,  and  Miss  Ritchie 
prayed  with  him,  and  he  responded  with  a fervor  which  thrilled 
them. 

% 

About  half  past  two  o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  he  referred  to 
the  dangerous  and  alarming  illness  with  which  he  was  seized 
at  the  Bristol  Conference,  at  which  time,  addressing  Joseph 
Bradford,  his  faithful  and  loving  nurse,  he  had  said,  “ I have 
been  wandering  up  and  down  between  fifty  and  sixty  years,  en- 
deavoring, in  my  poor  way,  to  do  a little  good  to  my  fellow- 
creatures  ; and  now  it  is  probable  that  there  are  but  a few  steps 
between  me  and  death ; and  what  have  I to  trust  to  for  salva- 


Wesley’s  Death  ahd  Chaeactee. 


563 


tion  ? I can  see  nothing  whieh  I have  done  or  suffered  that  will 
bear  looking  at.  I have  no  other  plea  than  this : — 

‘ I the  chief  of  sinners  am, 

But  Jesus  died  for  me.’  ” 

“ There  is  no  need,”  said  he,  “ for  me  to  say  more  than  I 
said  at  Bristol.” 

“ Is  this,”  asked  Miss  Kitchie,  “ your  present  language,  and 
do  you  feel  now  as  you  did  then  ? ” 

“ Yes,”  he  answered.  Miss  Ritchie  repeated  the  well-known 
lines  : 

“ Bold  I approach  the  eternal  throne, 

And  claim  the  crown,  through  Christ  my  own  ; ” 

and  added,  “ It  is  enough.  He,  our  precious  Immanuel,  has 
purchased,  has  promised  all.” 

“ Yes,”  said  Wesley.  “ He  is  all ! He  is  all ! I will  go  ! ” 

“ To  joys  above,”  continued  Miss  Ritchie.  “Lord,  help  me 
to  follow  you  ! ” 

“ Amen ! ” responded  the  dying  Christian. 

After  this  his  fever  increased,  and  he  became  delirious  ; but 
even  during  his  delirium  he  was  either  about  to  preach,  or 
was  meeting  classes. 

In  the  evening  he  again  got  up,  and  while  sitting  in  his 
chair,  remarked ; “ What  are  all  the  pretty  things  at  B.  to  a 
dying  man  ? ” And  then,  again  reverting  to  his  words  at  Bris- 
tol, he  exclaimed : 

‘ ‘ I the  chief  of  sinners  am. 

But  Jesus  died  for  me.” 

“We must  be  justified  by  faith,  and  then  go  on  to  sanctifica- 
tion.” 

On  Monday,  February  28,  his  weakness  increased  apace. 
His  friends  were  greatly  alarmed ; and  even  Dr.  Whitehead 
desired  to  summon  another  physician.  “ Dr.  Whitehead,”  said 
Wesley,  “ knows  my  constitution  better  than  any  one : I am 
perfectly  satisfied,  and  will  not  have  any  one  else.”  Most 


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The  Wesley  JMemoeial  Yoluivie. 


of  the  day  was  spent  in  sleep.  He  seldom  spoke  ; but  once,  in 
a wakeful  interval,  he  was  heard  saying  in  a low  voice,  “ There 
is  no  way  into  the  holiest  but  by  the  blood  of  Jesus.”  At  an- 
other time,  he  asked  Thomas  Rankin  what  the  text  was  from 
which  he  (Wesley)  had  preached  at  Hampstead,  a short  time 
before.  Rankin  answered,  “Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that,  though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes 
he  became  poor,  that  ye  through  his  poverty  might  be  rich.” 
“Yes,”  said  Wesley.  “That  is  the  foundation — the  only 
foundation — -there  is  no  other.  We  have  boldness  to  enter 
into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus.” 

It  was  now  evident  to  all  that  Wesley  was  beginning  to 
sleep  his  last  sleep.  His  friends  around  him  were  broken- 
hearted. Poor  distressed  Joseph  Bradford  dispatched  numerous 
notes  to  the  preachers,  in  the  following  terms — 

“ Dear  Brother : Mr.  Wesley  is  very  ill ; pray!  pray!  pray! 

“I  am  your  affectionate  brother, 

“ Joseph  Bradfokd.” 

All  was  unavailing.  Wesley’s  work  was  finished.  On  Tues- 
day, March  1,  after  a very  restless  night,  he  began  singing — 

“All  glory  to  God  in  the  sky, 

And  peace  upon  earth  be  restored ! 

O Jesus,  exalted  on  high, 

Appear  our  omnipotent  Lord  ! 

Who  meanly  in  Bethlehem  born, 

Didst  stoop  to  redeem  a lost  race. 

Once  more  to  thy  people  return. 

And  reign  in  thy  kingdom  of  grace ! 

“ O ! wouldst  thou  again  be  made  known, 

Again  in  thy  Spirit  descend. 

And  set  up  in  each  of  thine  own 
A kingdom  that  never  shall  end  ! 

Thou  only  art  able  to  bless. 

And  make  the  glad  nations  obey. 

And  bid  the  dire  enmity  cease, 

And  bow  the  whole  world  to  thy  sway.” 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chaeacter. 


565 


Here,  while  breathing  faith  and  joy  and  universal  benevo- 
lence, his  strength  failed.  “ I want  to  write,”  said  he.  A pen 
was  put  into  his  hand,  and  paper  was  placed  before  him.  His 
hand  had  forgot  its  cunning.  “ I cannot,”  said  the  dying  man. 
“ Let  me  write  for  you,”  remarked  Miss  Hitchie  : “ tell  me 
what  you  would  say.”  “Hothing,”  he  replied,  “ but  that  God 
is  with  us.” 

In  the  forenoon  he  said : “ I will  get  up.”  And  while  his 
clothes  were  being  prepared  for  him,  he  again  commenced 
singing  in  a way  which  surprised  his  friends — 

“ I ’ll  praise  my  Maker  while  I ’ve  breath, 

And  when  my  voice  is  lost  in  death, 

Praise  shall  employ  my  nobler  powers ; 

My  days  of  praise  shall  ne’er  be  past, 

While  life,  and  thought,  and  being  last. 

Or  immortality  endures. 

“ Happy  the  man  whose  hopes  rely 
On  Israel’s  God ; he  made  the  sky, 

And  earth,  and  seas,  with  all  their  train ; 

His  truth  forever  stands  secure ; 

He  saves  the  oppressed,  he  feeds  the  poor. 

And  none  shall  find  his  promise  vain.” 

Being  dressed  and  seated  in  his  chair,  he  appeared  to  change 
for  death;  but,  in  a low  voice,  said  : “ Lord,  thou  gi  vest  strength 
to  them  that  can  speak,  and  to  them  that  cannot.  Speak,  Lord, 
to  all  our  hearts,  and  let  them  know  that  thou  loosest  tongues ! ” 
And  again  he  began  to  sing,  what  turned  out  to  be  his  last 
song  outside  of  heaven  : 

“ To  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 

Who  sweetly  all  agree,” — 

but  here  his  voice  failed,  and,  gasping  for  breath,  he  said : 
“ Now  we  have  done — let  us  go.” 

Full  of  happiness,  but  utterly  exhausted,  he  was  put  to  bed, 
where,  after  a short  but  quiet  sleep,  he  opened  his  eyes,  and 
addressing  the  weeping  watchers  who  stood  around  him,  said : 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


“ Pray  and  praise ; ” and,  of  course,  they  at  once  complied. 
On  rising  from  their  knees  he  took  their  hands,  drew  them 
near  to  him,  kissed  them,  and  said  to  each,  “ Farewell,  fare- 
well.” He  asked  Joseph  Bradford,  his  old  traveling  compan- 
ion, about  the  key  and  contents  of  his  bureau,  remarking,  “ I 
want  to  have  all  things  ready  for  my  executors.  Let  me  be 
buried  in  nothing  but  what  is  woolen,  and  let  my  corpse  be 
carried  in  my  coffin  into  the  chapel.”  And  then,  as  if  no  other 
earthly  matters  required  his  attention,  he  again  called  out, 
“ Pray  and  praise.”  Down  fell  his  friends  upon  their  knees, 
and  fervent  were  the  dying  saint’s  responses,  especially  to  John 
Broadbent’s  prayer  that  God  would  still  bless  the  system  of 
doctrine  and  discipline  which  Wesley  had  been  the  means  of 
establishing.  And  now  each  watcher,  including  James  Rogers’ 
little  boy,  drew  near  to  the  bed  of  the  expiring  veteran,  and, 
with  affectionate  solicitude,  awaited  the  coming  of  the  shining 
ones  to  conduct  him  home.  With  the  utmost  placidity  he  again 
saluted  them,  shook  hands,  and  said  : “ Farewell,  farewell ! ” 

There  was  no  conflict,  no  struggle,  no  sigh,  no  groan.  He 
was  ready  and  waiting  and  willing,  if  not  wishful,  to  go.  The 
scene  was  the  peaceful  setting  of  a glorious  sun,  undimmed  by 
the  smallest  intervening  cloud. 

He  tried  to  speak,  but  his  friends  found  it  difficult  to  under- 
stand what  he  meant,  except  that  he  wished  his  sermon  on 
“The  Love  of  God  to  Fallen  Man,”  founded  on  the  text, 
“Hot  as  the  offense,  so  also  is  the  free  gift,”  to  be  “scattered 
abroad,  and  given  to  every  body.”  * The  group  of  watch- 
ers thought  him  dyiug — there  was  a solemn  pause — silence 
reigned  supreme,  until  at  length  the  grand  old  Christian  soldier 
summoned  for  a final  effort  all  the  little  strength  he  had  re- 
maining, and  exclaimed,  in  a tone  well-nigh  supernatural, 
The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us  ! And  then,  after  another 
pause,  and  while  lifting  his  arm  in  joyous  triumph,  he  re- 

* In  compliance  with  his  wish,  ten  thousand  copies  were  printed  and  gratuit- 
ously distributed. — Rogers’  “ Life,”  p.  48. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chaeacter.  537 

I 

peated,  with  an  emphasis  w'hich  thrilled  his  friends,  The  hest 
of  all  is,  God  is  with  us  ! an  utterance  which  henceforth  be- 
came the  watch-word  of  his  followers. 

hfatnre  was  once  more  exhausted.  Some  one  wetted  his 
parched  lips.  “ It  will  not  do,”  he  said,  “ we  must  take  the 
consequence.  ISTever  mind  the  poor  carcass.” 

James  Rogers  and  Thomas  Rankin  were  standing  by  his 
bed  ; but  his  sight  was  so  nearly  gone  that  he  was  unable  to 
recognize  their  features.  “ Who  are  these  ? ” he  asked.  “ Sir,” 
said  Mr.  Rogers,  “ we  are  come  to  rejoice  with  you ; you  are 
going  to  receive  your  crown.”  “ It  is  the  Lord’s  doing,”  re- 
plied Wesley,  “and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes.” 

Being  told  that  the  widow  of  his  brother  Charles  had  come 
to  see  him,  he  thanked  her,  affectionately  endeavored  to  kiss 
her,  and  said,  “He  giveth  his  servants  rest.”  She  moistened 
his  hps,  and  he  immediately  repeated  his  almost  invariable 
thanksgiving  after  meals,  “ W e thank  thee,  O Lord,  for  these 
and  all  thy  mercies.  Bless  the  Church  and  the  king,  and  grant 
us  truth  and  peace,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  for  ever 
and  ever ! ” Then,  after  a brief  pause,  he  cried,  “ He  causeth 
his  servants  to  lie  down  in  peace;”  and  after  another,  “The 
clouds  drop  fatness ; ” and  after  a third,  “ The  Lord  of  hosts 
is  with  us ; the  Hod  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge  ! Pray  and 
praise ! ” And  again  his  friends  fell  upon  their  knees,  and 
complied  with  his  request. 

It  was  now  Tuesday  night — his  last  on  earth.  During  its 
silent  and  slowly  passing  hours  he  often  attempted  to  repeat 
Dr.  Watt’s  noble  hymn,  two  verses  of  which,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  his  friends,  he  had  sung  on  Tuesday  forenoon  ; but  he 
always  failed  in  getting  further  than  the  first  two  words,  “ I’ll 
praise — I’ll  praise.” 

On  Wednesday  morning,  March  2,  his  loving  watchers 
knelt  round  his  bed,  and  Joseph  Bradford  offered  prayer.  On 
rising  from  their  knees  Wesley  said,  “ Farewell ! ” the  last  word 

he  was  heard  to  articulate. 

36 


568 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


James  Rogers  writes: 

Perceiving  that  the  closing  scene  drew  very  near,  about  half  past  nine 
o’clock,  Mr.  Bradford,  Mr.  Whitfield,  Mr.  Broadbent,  Mr.  Brackenbury, 
Mr.  Horton,  Dr,  Whitehead,  Miss  Wesley,  Miss  Ritchie,  my  wife,  my- 
self, and  my  little  James,  all  kneeled  upon  our  knees  around  the  bed  of 
this  man  of  God  ; while  his  breath,  gently  decreasing,  ceased.  What  we 
felt  at  that  moment  is  inexpressible.  The  weight  of  glory  which  seemed 
to  rest  on  the  countenance  of  our  beloved  pastor,  father,  and  friend,  as 
he  entered  the  joy  of  his  Lord,  filled  our  he.arts  with  holy  dread,  mixed 
with  ineffable  sweetness.  Surely  God  was  in  that  place!  Just  as  Mr. 
Wesley  breathed  his  last  breath  Mr.  Bradford  was  saying,  “Lift  up 
your  heads,  O ye  gates  1 and  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors!  and  let 
this  heir  of  glory  in  ! ” 

John  Wesley  died  at  twenty  minutes  before  ten  o’clock,  on 
Wednesday  morning,  March  2,  1791. 

What  followed  ? “ Children!  ” said  John  Wesley’s  mother, 

“ as  soon  as  I am  dead,  sing  a song  of  praise  ! ” As  soon  as 
Wesley  died,  his  friends,  standing  about  his  corpse,  sang: 

“ Waiting  to  receive  thy  spirit, 

Lo!  the  Saviour  stands  above; 

Shows  the  purchase  of  his  merit, 

Reaches  out  tiie  crown  of  love.” 

Miss  Ritchie  then  said,  “ Let  us  pray  for  the  mantle  of  our 
Elijah ! ” on  which,  she  adds,  “ Mr.  Rogers  prayed  for  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  us,  and  all  who  mourn  the 
general  loss  the  Church  militant  sustains  by  the  removal  of 
our  much-loved  father  to  his  great  reward.  Even  so.  Amen ! ” 

The  day  fixed  for  Wesley’s  funeral  was  March  9.  In 
his  will  there  was  the  clause  following : “ I give  six  pounds  to 
be  divided  among  the  six  poor  men  named  by  the  assistant, 
who  shall  carry  my  body  to  the  grave ; for  I particularly 
desire  there  may  be  no  hearse,  no  coach,  no  escutcheon,  no 
pomp,  except  the  tears  of  them  that  love  me  and  are  following 
me  to  Abraham’s  bosom.  I solemnly  adjure  my  executors,  in 
the  name  of  God,  to  observe  this.”  The  intention  of  the  execu- 
tors was  to  take  the  coffin  into  City  Road  Chapel,  and  place 


Wesley’s  Death  ahd  Character. 


569 


it  before  the  pulpit,  and  while  there,  that  Dr.  Whitehead  should 
preach  the  funeral  sermon,  at  the  conclusion  of  which  should 
be  the  burial. 

The  crowds  who  came  to  look  at  Wesley’s  corpse,  both  in 
the  house  and  in  the  chapel,  were  enormous.  Business  in 
City  Road  was  to  a great  extent  suspended ; and  carriages  could 
hardly  find  room  to  pass  each  other.  The  multitudes  included 
many  besides  Methodists.  The  Rev.  John  Mitford  says,  that 
in  the  last  drive  he  ever  took  with  Samuel  Rogers,  when  re- 
turning by  City  Road,  the  poet  pulled  the  cheek-string  oppo- 
site to  Bunhillfields  burial-ground,  and  said,  “You  see  that 
chapel  opposite ; get  out  and  look  carefully  at  the  house 
which  stands  to  the  left  of  it,  and  then  come  back  again.” 
Mitford  having  done  what  Rogers  directed,  the  latter  said ; 
“ When  I was  a young  man  in  the  banking-house,  and  my 
father  hved  at  Stoke-Rewington,  I used  every  day,  in  going 
to  the  city,  to  pass  this  place.  One  day,  in  returning,  I saw  a 
number  of  respectable  persons  of  both  sexes,  assembled  here, 
all  well  dressed  in  mourning.  The  door  of  that  house  was  open 
and  they  entered  it  in  pairs.  I thought  that  without  impro- 
priety I might  join  them.  We  all  walked  up  stairs,  and 
came  to  a drawing-room  in  the  midst  of  which  was  a table. 
On  this  table  lay  the  body  of  a person  dressed  in  the  robes  of 
a clergyman,  with  bands,  and  his  gray  hair  shading  his  face  on 
either  side.  He  was  of  small  stature,  and  his  countenance 
looked  like  wax.  We  all  moved  round  the  table,  some  of 
the  party  much  affected,  with  our  eyes  fixed  upon  the  ven- 
erable figure  that  lay  before  us ; and  as  we  moved  on  others 
followed.  After  we  had  gone  the  round  of  the  table  we  de- 
scended as  we  came.  The  person  that  lay  before  us  was  the 
celebrated  John  Wesley.” 

Such  was  the  excitement  created  by  Wesley’s  death,  and 
such  were  the  crowds  that  came  to  see  his  corpse  and  were 
likely  to  attend  his  funeral,  that,  in  the  evening  before  the  day 
appointed  for  the  funeral  sermon  and  the  burial,  the  executors 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


changed  the  hour  that  had  been  named  for  them,  and  arranged 
that  the  interment  should  take  place  between  the  hours  of  five 
and  six  next  morning.  The  time  was  unusual,  for  it  would 
still  be  dark,  and  the  weather,  of  course,  was  wintry.  The 
notice  given  to  W esley ’s  friends  was  short,  and,  had  they  not 
been  so  accustomed  to  attend  five  o’clock  services,  the  hour 
would  have  been  exceedingly  inconvenient.  To  a great  extent 
the  stratagem  of  the  executors  succeeded ; but  still  hundreds 
were  present  to  see  the  coffin  of  the  arch-Methodist  put  into  its 
tomb.  In  conformity  with  a custom  which  then,  and  long  aft- 
erward, existed,  a funeral  biscuit  was  given  to  each  of  the  as- 
sembled mourners,  wrapped  in  an  envelope,  on  which  was  a 
most  beautifully  engraved  portrait  of  the  departed,  dressed  in 
canonicals,  with  books  for  a back-ground,  a cross  and  a crown 
above  the  portrait,  and  about  it  a border,  with  the  words : 
“ 0 man,  thy  kingdom  is  departing  from  thee.  For  soon 
man’s  hour  is  up,  and  we  are  gone.” 

Seven  years  before,  in  his  “Arminian  Magazine,”  Wesley 
had  published  an  account  of  Philip  Yerheyen,  “one  of  the 
most  eminent  physicians  in  Europe,”  and  had  said  : “ Philip 
Yerheyen  ordered  his  body  to  be  buried  in  the  dkavch-yard, 
that  he  might  not  lessen  the  honor  of  the  church,  or  infect  it 
with  unwholesome  vapors.  What  pity  it  is  that  so  few  per- 
sons, even  of  sense  and  piety,  feel  the  force  of  these  considera- 
tions. I am  so  sensible  of  their  weight  that  I have  left  orders 
to  bury  my  remains,  not  in  the  Hew  Chapel,  but  in  the  bury- 
ing-ground  adjoining  it.” 

Accordingly,  Wesley’s  corpse  was  put  into  a vault  in  the 
ground  behind  his  chapel  in  City  Road.  The  Rev.  John 
Richardson,  one  of  Wesley’s  clerical  helpers,  read  the  burial 
service,  and  when  he  came  to  the  sentence,  “ forasmuch  as  it 
hath  pleased  Almighty  Grod  to  take  unto  himself  the  soul  of  our 
dear  Irother,'^  he  substituted,  with  tender  emphasis,  the  word 
father  in  the  place  of  the  word  Irother,  a simple  change  which 
turned  the  silent  tears  of  the  assembled  mourners  into  a par- 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Charactee. 


571 


oxjsm  of  ungovernable  grief,  and  from  "Wesley’s  grave  there 
went  up  to  heaven  a loving  outburst  of  wailing  lamentation. 
The  inscription  on  the  coffin  was, 

. JOHANNES  WESLEY,  A.  M. 

OLLM.  SOC.  COLL.  LIN.  OXON. 

OB.  2D.  DIE  MARTII,  1'791. 

AN.  AA:T.  88. 

The  solemn  ceremony  in  one  respect  was  over  before  six 
o’clock  on  that  wintry  morning ; but  not  in  another.  During 
the  reading  of  the  burial  service  multitudes  had  assembled,  and 
now  rushed  into  the  “Hew  Chapel”  to  Listen  to  Dr.  White- 
head’s sermon.  The  chapel  was  hung  with  superfine  black 
cloth.  On  one  side  of  the  chapel  sat  the  men,  on  the  other 
the  women.  Among  the  latter,  with  one  solitary  exception,  a 
colored  ribbon  was  not  visible ; and  the  lady  whose  unenviable 
bonnet  was  adorned  with  blue  was  so  annoyed  at  her  unseemly 
singularity,  that  she  tore  the  ornament  from  her  head,  and 
assumed  the  garb  of  general  mourning.  The  chapel  was 
crowded  to  excess.  In  the  vast  congregation  were  a large 
number  of  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  also  not 
a few  Dissenting  ministers.  The  text  chosen  was,  “ Know  ye 
not  that  there  is  a prince  and  a great  man  fallen  this  day  in 
Israel  ? ” The  sermon  was  able  and  appropriate,  and  was  pub- 
lished in  the  form  of  an  octavo  pamphlet  of  seventy-one  pages. 
This  was  followed  by  many  others,  in  churches,  chapels,  and 
meeting-houses,  in  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  Wales,  and 
America  ;*  and  the  Methodists,  at  least,  went  into  general 
mourning.  John  Pawson  wrote  : f 

* Of  all  the  texts  chosen  on  this  occasion,  perhaps  the  most  appropriate  was 
that  taken  at  New  York,  on  May  29,  1'791,  by  grand  old  Francis  Asbury,  the  only 
Methodist  preacher  who  had  any  claim  to  be  regarded  as  Wesley’s  equal  in  evan- 
gelistic traveling,  toil,  and  trial.  “ Thou  hast  fully  known  my  doctrine,  manner  of 
life,  purpose,  faith,  long-suffering,  charity,  patience,  persecutions,  afflictions,  which 
came  unto  me  at  Antioch,  at  Iconium,  at  Lystra  ; what  persecutions  I endured  : 
but  out  of  them  all  the  Lord  delivered  me.”  Asbury  might  have  preached  for  a 
month  from  such  a text,  and  even  then  have  left  his  subject  unexhausted. 

f Unpublished  Letter. 


572 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume, 


The  people  in  this  part  of  the  country  (Yorkshire)  pay  all  possible  re- 
spect to  Mr.  Wesley’s  memory,  by  going  into  mourning  themselves,  and 
by  putting  all  the  pulpits  and  many  of  tlie  galleries  in  mourning.  I 
never  saw  any  thing  like  the  chapels  at  Leeds  and  Halifax.  At  Man- 
chester and  at  Rochdale  they  have  added  escutcheons;  and  they  talk  of 
doing  so  at  Leeds. 

The  following  inscription  was  put  on  Wesley’s  tomb : — ■ 

TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

THE  VENERABLE  JOHN  WESLEY,  A.M., 

LATE  FELLOW  OF  LINCOLN  COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 

THIS  GREAT  LIGHT  AROSE 

(by  THE  SINGULAR  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD,) 

TO  ENLIGHTEN  THESE  NATIONS, 

AND  TO  REVIVE,  ENFORCE,  AND  DEFEND 
THE  PURE,  APOSTOLICAL  DOCTRINES  AND  PRACTICES  OP 

THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH  I 

WHICH  HE  CONTINUED  TO  DO,  BY  HIS  WRITINGS  AND  HIS 

LABORS 

FOR  MORE  THAN  HALF  A CENTURY: 

AND,  TO  HIS  INEXPRESSIBLE  JOY, 

NOT  ONLY  BEHELD  THEIR  INFLUENCE  EXTENDING, 

AND  THEIR  EFFICACY  WITNESSED, 

IN  THE  HEARTS  AND  LIVES  OF  MANY  THOUSANDS, 

AS  WELL  IN  THE  WESTERN  WORLD,  AS  IN  THESE 

KINGDOMS: 

BUT  ALSO,  FAR  ABOVE  ALL  HUMAN  POWER  OR  EXPECTATION, 

LIVED  TO  SEE  PROVISION  MADE,  BY  THE  SINGULAR  GRACE  OF  GOD, 

FOR  THEIR  CONTINUANCE  AND  ESTABLISHMENT, 

TO  THE  JOY  OF  FUTURE  GENERATIONS. 

READER,  IF  THOU  ART  CONSTRAINED  TO  BLESS  THE  INSTRUMENT, 

GIVE  GOD  THE  GLORY! 

AFTER  HAVING  LANGUISHED  A FEW  DAYS,  HE,  AT  LENGTH,  FINISHED 
HIS  COURSE  AND  HIS  LIFE  TOGETHER  : GLORIOUSLY  TRIUMPHING 
OVER  DEATH,  MARCH  2,  AN.  DOM.  1791.  IN  THE 
EIGHTY-EIGHTH  YEAR  OF  HIS  AGE. 

Dr.  Whitehead  justly  says  this  “ inscription  is  not  worthy  of 
Mr.  Wesley.”  Nine  years  afterward  he  wrote  one  himself, 
which,  in  1800,  was  put  upon  the  marhle  tablet  placed  within 
the  communion  rails  of  Wesley’s  Chapel  in  City  Road.  The 
following  is  a copy  of  it : * 


In  1823  this  inscription  was  slightly  altered,  but  not  improved. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chakactee. 


573 


SACRED  TO  THE  MEMORY 

OF  THE  EEV.  JOHN  WESLEY,  M.A., 

SOMETIME  FELLOW  OF  LINCOLN  COLLEGE,  OXFORD. 

A MAN  IN  LEARNING  AND  SINCERE  PIETY, 

SCARCELY  INFERIOR  TO  ANT: 

TJf  ZEAL,  MINISTERIAL  LABORS,  AND  EXTENSIVE  USEFULNESS, 

SUPERIOR  (PERHAPS)  TO  ALL  MEN 

SINCE  THE  DAYS  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

REGARDLESS  OF  FATIGUE,  PERSONAL  DANGER,  AND  DISGRACE, 

HE  WENT  OUT  INTO  THE  HIGHWAYS  AND  HEDGES, 

CALLING  SINNERS  TO  REPENTANCE, 

AND  PREACHING  THE  GOSPEL  OF  PEACE. 

HE  WAS  THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  METHODIST  SOCIETIES: 

THE  PATRON  AND  FRIEND  OF  THE  LAY  PREACHERS, 

BY  WHOSE  AID  HE  EXTENDED  THE  PLAN  OF  ITINERANT  PREACHING 
THROUGH  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND,  THE  WEST  INDIES, 

AND  AMERICA,  WITH  UNEXAMPLED  SUCCESS. 

HE  WAS  BORN  JUNE  lY,  1703, 

AND  DIED  MARCH  2,  1791, 

IN  SURE  AND  CERTAIN  HOPE  OF  ETERNAL  LIFE, 

THROUGH  THE  ATONEMENT  AND  MEDIATION  OF  A CRUCIFIED  SAVIOUR. 

HE  WAS  SIXTT-FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE  MINISTRY, 

AND  FIFTY-TWO  AN  ITINERANT  PREACHER. 

HE  LIVED  TO  SEE  IN  THESE  KINGDOMS  ONLY, 

ABOUT  THREE  HUNDRED  ITINERANT,  AND  A THOUSAND  LOCAL,  PREACHERS, 

RAISED  UP  FROM  THE  MIDST  OF  HIS  OWN  PEOPLE, 

AND  EIGHTY  THOUSAND  PERSONS  IN  THE  SOCIETIES  UNDER  HIS  CARE. 

HIS  NAME  WILL  EVER  BE  HELD  IN  GRATEFUL  REMEMBRANCE 

BY  ALL  WHO  REJOICE  IN  THE  UNIVERSAL  SPREAD 
OP  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

SOLI  DEO  GLORIA. 

The  last  marble  tablet  is  that  put  up  in  England’s  grandest 
cathedral — Westminster  Abbey — in  1876,  with  medallion  pro- 
files of  the  two  Wesley  brothers,  and  a bass-relief  of  Wesley 
preaching  on  bis  father’s  tombstone. 

Hundreds  of  critiques  on  Wesley’s  career  and  character 
have  been  published;  but  in  this  sketch  all  are  purposely 
excluded,  except  a few  by  those  who  were  well  acquainted 
with  the  man  and  were  competent  to  form  and  express  correct 
opinions  concerning  him. 

Dr.  John  Whitehead  was  one  of  Wesley’s  confidential  friends, 
bis  chosen  medical  adviser,  and  one  of  the  three  trustees  to 
whom  he  bequeathed  his  books  and  manuscripts.  Originally 


574 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


a poor  weaver  boj,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Glossop,  he,  in 
1764,  became  one  of  Wesley’s  itinerant  preachers,  and  was 
appointed  to  the  Cornwall  Circuit,  where,  during  the  year, 
more  than  a thousand  members  were  added  to  the  Societies. 
The  two  following  years  he  spent  in  Athlone  Circuit,  Ireland. 
In  1767  he  was  appointed  to  “Lancashire;”  and  in  176S 
was  made  the  “ assistant  ” in  Bristol  Circuit.  While  here  he 
attended  Kingswood  School,  and,  with  the  assistance  of  Joseph 
Benson,  made  considerable  progress  in  the  acquirement  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  languages.  He  then  retired  from  the  itin- 
erancy, on  account  of  his  wife’s  ill-health,  and  commenced 
business  in  Bristol,  and  became  insolvent.  He  next  opened 
a school  at  Wandsworth,  where  he  had  two  of  the  sons  of  the 
celebrated  Hr.  Lettsom  as  his  pupils.  By  Lettsom  he  was 
persuaded  to  study  for  the  medical  profession,  and,  with  the 
doctor’s  assistance  and  that  of  Mr.  Barclay,  a Quaker,  he 
went  to  the  University  of  Leyden,  and  returned  to  England 
with  the  diploma  of  Doctor  of  Medicine.  There  cannot  be  a 
doubt  of  his  great  natural  abilities,  and  of  his  learning,  and  of 
his  superior  qualifications  to  draw  up  a just  and  faithful  cri- 
tique on  his  beloved  friend  Wesley.  He  writes: — 

Mr.  Wesley  was  richly  furnished  with  literature  in  its  various 
branches.  He  was  a critic  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics;  and  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  Hebrew,  as  well  as  with  most  of  the  Eu- 
ropean languages  now  in  use.  At  college  he  studied  Euclid,  Keil, 
Sir  Isaac  Newton’s  Optics,  etc.,  etc. ; but  he  never  entered  far  into  the 
higher  branches  of  mathematics.  He  was  no  great  friend  to  meta- 
physical disquisitions ; and  I always  thought  he  held  metaphysical 
reasoning,  even  when  properly  and  modestly  conducted,  in  too  low 
estimation. 

Sacred  learning  occupied  much  of  his  time  and  attention.  He  was 
well  read  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures;  and  was  so  conversant  with  tlie 
original  language  of  the  New  Testament  that  when  he  was  at  a 
loss  to  repeat  a passage  in  the  words  of  our  common  translation  he 
was  never  at  a loss  to  repeat  it  in  the  original  Greek. 

His  industry  was  almost  incredible.  From  four  o’clock  in  the  morn- 
ing till  eight  at  night  his  time  was  employed  in  reading,  writing, 


"Wesley’s  Death  aistd  Character. 


575 


preaching,  meeting  the  people,  visiting  the  sick,  or  traveling.  Before 
the  infirmities  of  age  came  upon  him,  he  usually  traveled  on  horseback, 
and  would  ride  thirty,  forty,  or  fifty  miles  in  a day,  and  preach  two, 
three,  or  four  times.  He  had  a constant  correspondence  with  persons 
all  over  the  three  kingdoms,  and  with  the  preachers  in  every  part,  and 
answered  his  letters  with  great  punctuality.  He  read  most  publications 
that  were  deemed  valuable,  if  they  related  to  religion  or  natural  phi- 
losophy, and  often  made  extracts  from  them. 

As  a writer  his  object  was  to  instruct  and  benefit  that  numerous  class 
of  people  who  have  a plain  understanding,  little  learning,  little  money, 
and  little  time  to  spare  for  reading.  Content  with  doing  good,  he  used 
no  trappings  merely  to  please,  or  to  gain  applause.  The  distinguishing 
character  of  his  style  is  brevity  and  perspicuity.  His  words  are  well 
chosen,  being  fure,  froper  to  his  subject,  and  precise  in  their  meaning. 
The  sentences  commonly  have  clearness,  unity,  and  strength;  but  he 
sometimes  closes  a sentence  in  a manner  which  destroys  its  harmony, 
and  subtracts  from  its  beauty.  Whenever  he  took  time,  and  gave  the 
necessary  attention  to  his  subject,  both  his  manner  of  treating  it  and 
his  style  show  the  hand  of  a master. 

He  has  been  charged  writh  the  love  of  power,  even  so  far  as  to  be  a 
blemish  in  his  character.  But  he  alw'ays  denied  the  charge.  He  always 
considered  his  power  as  inseparably  connected  with  the  unity  and  pros- 
perity of  the  Societies  over  which  he  presided  ; and  no  man  ever  used 
his  power  with  more  moderation.  He  never  sought  his  own  ease  or 
advantage  in  the  use  of  it;  and  the  Societies  labored  under  no  incon- 
venience from  it,  but  prospered  under  his  government.  Having  known 
him  for  twenty-five  years,  and  having  examined  his  private  papers,  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  declaring,  that  he  used  all  his  influence  and  pcjwer 
to  the  best  of  his  judgment,  on  every  occasion,  to  promote  the  interests 
of  Christianity,  the  prosperity  of  the  people  he  governed,  and  the  jieace 
and  welfare  of  his  country. 

The  remainder  of  Dr.  Whitehead’s  critique  is  mainly  taken 
from  that  of  the  Rev.  John  Hampson,  Jun.,  who  must  now  be 
introduced  to  the  reader’s  “notice. 

Mr.  Hampson  was  the  son  of  John  Hampson,  Sen.,  who 
became  one  of  Wesley’s  itinerant  preachers  as  early  as  the 
year  1752.  Though  not  so  intimate  a friend  of  Wesley’s  as 
Dr.  Whitehead,  he  was  well  qualified  to  form  a just  estimate 
of  the  character  and  career  of  the  great  evangelist.  In  his 


576 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


youth  he  had  often  met  him  in  his  fathei’’s  humble  domicile, 
and  had  observed  his  spirit  and  listened  to  his  conversations. 
Besides  this,  he  himself,  for  eight  years,  from  1777  to  1784, 
had  been  employed  by  Wesley  in  the  itinerant  work.  He 
was  a man  of  education,  and,  a few  years  after  Wesley’s 
death,  obtained  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  became 
rector  of  Sunderland.  Both  he  and  his  father  seceded  from 
Wesley’s  connection  in  1785,  because  Wesley,  in  his  “Deed 
of  Declaration,”  did  not  insert  their  names  in  the  list  of  itin- 
erant preachers  whom,  by  that  Deed,  he  constituted  the  legal 
Conference  of  the  Methodists.  Many  Methodist  writers  have 
disparaged  the  two  Hampsons  on  this  account ; but,  remem- 
bering the  long  standing  of  the  father,  and  the  mental 
superiority  of  both  the  father  and  the  son  as  compared  with 
those  of  not  a few  of  the  preachers  whose  names  were  put 
into  the  Deed,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  had  just  reason 
for  complaint.  Ho  doubt  both  were  irritated ; but  the  son,  at 
least,  was  still  grateful  and  affectionate.  In  an  unpublished 
letter  to  Wesley,  in  which  he  resigned  his  office  as  an  itinerant 
preacher,  and  which  is  dated,  Chester-le-street,  January  25, 
1785,  the  following  are  the  concluding  lines:  “I  greatly 
respect  you  as  an  instrument  of  great  good  to  mankind.  I 
return  you  many  thanks  for  every  instance  of  kindness  to 
me ; and  am,  reverend  sir,  your  affectionate,  humble  servant, 
John  Hampson.”  Four  months  after  the  date  of  this  letter, 
Wesley  inserted  the  portrait  of  “John  Hampson,  Jun.,  aged 
30,”  in  his  “ Arminian  Magazine  ! ” 

After  his  secession,  the  younger  Hampson  emplo^'ed  himseff 
in  preparing  memoirs  of  Wesley;  and,  at  the  time  of  Wesley’s 
death,  these  were  ready  for  the  press,  and,  in  three  small 
volumes,  were  published  within  the  next  six  months.  John 
Hampson,  Jun.,  has  always,  perhaps  unjustly,  been  regarded 
as  an  unfriendly  critic ; and,  therefore,  his  encomiums  cannot 
be  suspected  of  being  tinged  with  the  blind  partiality  of  au 
undiscriminating  admirer.  He  writes  : — 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Charactek. 


577 


Mr.  Wesley  had  peculiar  advantages  as  an  author.  He  had  a printing- 
office  under  his  immediate  inspection.  The  celebrity  of  his  name  gave  a 
rapid  and  extensive  sale  to  his  books ; and  the  exertions  of  the  preach- 
ers, many  of  whom  had  an  interest  in  it,  rendered  the  sale  still  more  ex- 
tensive than  it  would  otherwise  have  been.  If  we  may  guess  from  his 
continual  printing,  he  wished,  as  much  as  possible,  to  direct  his  people 
in  the  choice  of  their  books,  and  took  pains  to  inculcate  his  sentiments 
as  well  from  the  press  as  from  the  pulpit. 

His  character  as  a writer  has  never  yet  been  appreciated.  In  point  of 
style, his  most  distinguishing  character  is  conciseness.  He  abhorred  cir- 
cumlocution, and  constantly  endeavored  to  say  every  thing  in  the  fewest 
words.  Hence  he  was  sometimes  abrupt;  and  the  sententious  turn  of 
his  expressions  gave  now  and  then  a sort  of  bluntness  to  his  writings. 
His  conciseness,  however,  did  not  prevent  his  perspicuity.  He  knew 
how  to  separate  ideas  apparently  similar ; and  his  long  habit  of  consider- 
ing every  subject  in  its  most  simple  and  direct  view  was  the  true  reason 
that  he  rarely  fell  into  obscurity.  . . . 

Those  who  are  in  search  of  his  chief  excellence  as  an  author  must  look 
for  it  in  his  controversial  writings.  His  superior  skill  in  argument  gave 
him  a decided  advantage  over  most  of  his  opponents.  He  availed  him- 
self, with  equal  ease,  of  fair  and  direct  argumentation,  and  of  the  falla- 
cies and  subtleties  of  the  art;  and  he  knew  how  to  conceal  those  subtle- 
ties from  the  eye  of  a common  observer.  . . . 

Upon  the  whole,  he  was  a laborious,  useful  writer.  His  works  have 
done  infinite  good;  and, though  he  will  scarcely  rank  in  the  first  class  of 
English  authors,  his  name  will  descend  to  posterity  with  no  small  share 
of  respectability  and  applause.  If  usefulness  be  excellence ; if  public 
good  is  the  chief  object  of  attention  in  public  characters;  and  if  the 
greatest  benefactors  to  mankind  are  most  estimable,  Mr.  John  Wesley 
will  long  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  best  of  men,  as  he  was,  for  more 
than  fifty  years,  the  most  diligent  and  indefatigable. 

His  figure  was  remarkable.  His  stature  was  of  the  lowest ; his  habit 
of  body,  in  every  period  of  his  life,  the  reverse  of  corpulent,  and  ex- 
pressive of  strict  temperance  and  continual  exercise.  His  step  was  firm, 
and  his  appearance,  till  within  a few  years  of  his  death,  vigorous  and 
muscular.  His  face,  for  an  old  man,  was  one  of  the  finest  we  have  seen. 
A clear,  smooth  forehead,  an  aquiline  nose,  an  eye  the  brightest  and 
the  most  piercing  that  can  be  conceived,  and  a freshness  of  complexion 
scarcely  ever  to  be  found  at  his  years,  conspired  to  render  him  a venera- 
ble and  interesting  figure.  Few  have  seen  him  without  being  struck 


578 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


with  his  appearance ; and  many  who  had  been  greatly  prejudiced  against 
him  have  been  known  to  change  their  opinion  the  moment  they  were  in- 
troduced into  his  presence.  In  his  countenance  and  demeanor  there  was 
cheerfulness  mingled  with  gravity ; and  sprightliness  accompanied  with 
every  mark  of  the  most  serene  tranquillity. 

In  dress  he  was  a pattern  of  neatness  and  simplicity.  A narrow 
plaited  stock,  a coat  with  a small  upright  collar,  no  buckles  at  his 
knees,  no  silk  or  velvet  in  any  part  of  his  apparel,  and  a head  as  white 
as  snow,  gave  an  idea  of  something  primitive  and  apostolical. 

His  attitude  in  the  pulpit  was  graceful  and  easy ; his  action  calm  and 
natural,  yet  pleasing  and  expressive;  his  voice  not  loud,  but  clear  and 
manly ; his  style  neat,  simple,  and  perspicuous,  and  admirably  adapted 
to  the  capacity  of  his  hearers.  His  discourses,  in  point  of  composition, 
were  extremely  different  on  different  occasions.  When  he  gave  himself 
sufficient  time  for  study  he  succeeded  ; but  when  he  did  not  he  fre- 
quently failed.  The  employments  in  which  he  was  engaged  were  too 
numerous  for  a man  who  generally  appeared  in  the  pulpit  twice  or  thrice 
a day.  We  have  frequently  heard  him  when  he  was  excellent;  acute 
and  ingenious  in  his  observations,  accurate  in  his  descriptions,  and  clear 
and  pointed  in  his  expositions.  Not  seldom,  however,  have  we  found 
him  the  reverse.  He  preached  too  frequently,  and  the  consequence  was 
inevitable.  . . . He  often  appeared  in  the  pulpit  when  totally  ex- 
hausted with  labor  and  want  of  rest;  for  wherever  he  was  he  made  it  a 
point  to  preach  if  he  could  stand  upon  his  legs. 

In  social  life  he  was  lively  and  conversable,  and  of  exquisite  compan- 
ionable talents.  He  had  been  much  accustomed  to  society ; was  well 
acquainted  with  the  rules  of  good  breeding ; and,  in  general,  perfectly 
attentive  and  polite.  He  spoke  a good  deal  in  company ; and  as  he  had 
seen  much  of  the  world,  and,  in  the  course  of  his  travels,  had  acquired 
an  infinite  fund  of  anecdote,  he  was  not  sparing  in  his  communications ; 
and  the  manner  in  which  he  related  them  was  no  inconsiderable  addition 
to  the  entertainment  they  afforded.  Neither  the  infirmities  of  age  nor 
the  approach  of  death  had  any  apparent  influence  on  his  manner.  His 
cheerfulness  continued  to  the  last,  and  was  as  conspicuous  at  fourscore 
as  at  twenty-one. 

A remarkable  feature  in  his  character  w'as  his  placability.  His  temper 
was  naturally  warm  and  impetuous.  Religion  had,  in  a great  degree, 
corrected  this;  though  it  was  by  no  means  eradicated.  Persecution 
from  without  he  bore,  not  only  without  auger,  but  without  the  least  ap- 
parent emotion.  But  it  was  not  the  case  in  contests  of  another  kind. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chaeactee. 


579 


Opposition  from  his  preacliers  or  people  he  would  never  brook ; but  what 
he  said  of  himself  was  strikingly  true — that  he  had  a great  facility  in 
forgiving  injuries.  Submission  on  the  part  of  an  offender  presently  dis- 
armed his  resentment,  and  he  would  treat  him  with  great  kindness  and 
cordiality.  . . . 

Perhaps  he  was  the  most  charitable  man  in  England.  His  liberality  to 
the  poor  knew  no  bounds.  He  gave  away  not  merely  a certain  part  of 
his  income,  but  all  he  had.  His  own  necessities  provided  for,  he  de- 
voted all  the  rest  to  the  necessities  of  otliers.  We  are  persuaded  that  in 
about  fifty  years  he  gave  away  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  pounds, 
which  almost  any  other  than  himself  would  have  taken  care  to  put  out 
at  interest  upon  good  securities. 

His  travels  were  incessant,  and  almost  without  precedent.  ' His  pro- 
digious labors,  without  great  punctuality  in  the  management  of  his 
time,  would  have  been  impossible.  He  had  stated  hours  for  every  pur- 
pose. He  retired  to  rest  between  nine  and  ten,  and  rose  soon  after  four ; 
and  no  company,  no  conversation,  however  pleasing ; in  short,  nothing 
but  stern  necessity,  could  induce  him  to  relax.  His  rules  were  like 
the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  absolute  and  irrevocable.  He 
wrote,  he  traveled,  he  visited  the  sick,  he  did  every  thing  in  cer- 
tain hours  which  he  had  prescribed  for  himself,  and  those  hours  were 
inviolable. 

In  his  younger  days  he  traveled  on  horseback.  He  was  a hard  but 
unskillful  rider;  and  his  seat  was  as  ungraceful  as  it  appeared  uneasy. 
With  a book  in  his  hand  he  frequently  rode  from  fifty  to  sixty  or  sev- 
enty miles  a day;  and  from  a strange  notion  he  had  taken  up  of  riding 
with  the  bridle  on  his  horse’s  neck,  many  were  the  tumbles  they  had 
together.  Of  his  travels,  the  lowest  calculation  we  can  make  is  four 
thousand  miles  annually,  w'hich,  in  fifty-two  years,  will  give  two  hun- 
dred and  eight  thousand  miles. 

More  than  once  he  declared  to  the  public  that  his  own  hands  should  be 
his  executors ; and  that  if  he  died  worth  above  £10,  independent  of  his 
books,  he  would  give  the  world  leave  to  call  him  “ a thief  and  a robber.” 
In  this,  as  all  who  knew  him  expected,  he  kept  his  w'ord.  His  carriage 
and  horses,  his  clothes,  and  a few  trifles  of  that  kind,  are  all,  his  books 
excepted,  that  he  has  left.  And  even  the  value  of  his  books  is  of  no 
consequence,  since  they  are  entirely  left  to  the  Conference;  his  relations 
deriving  no  advantage  from  them  except  a rent  charge  of  £85,  to  be  paid 
to  his  brother’s  widow  during  her  life,  as  a consideration  for  the  copy- 
right of  his  brother’s  hymns. 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Here  we  imist  pause  to  introduce  the  testimony  of  other  con- 
temporaries of  the  great  Methodist  chieftain. 

Of  course,  Dr.  Coke  and  Henry  Moore  were  well  acquainted 
with  him,  and  were  numbered  among  his  confidential  friends ; 
but  it  is  a curious  fact  that  neither  in  the  “Life  of  Wesley,” 
which  they  unitedly  wrote  and  published  in  1792,  nor  in  Mr. 
Moore’s  more  elaborate  “ Life,”  issued  in  1825,  is  there  much 
concerning  Wesley’s  character  in  addition  to  what  has  been 
already  quoted  from  Dr.  Whitehead,  and  Wesley’s  first  biogra- 
pher, Mr.  Hampson.  They  tell  the  public  that  Wesley  “ in  his 
person  was  rather  below  the  middle  size  ; ” that  he  “ was  re- 
markably well  proportioned  ; ” that  “ he  seemed  not  to  have 
an  atom  of  superfluous  flesh,  and  yet  was  muscular  and 
strong ; ” that  “ he  was  a pattern  of  neatness  and  simplicity,  not 
only  in  his  person,  but  in  every  circumstance  of  his  life.” 
They  continue : — 

In  his  chamber  and  study,  during  liis  winter  months  of  residence  in 
London,  we  believe  there  never  was  a book  misplaced,  or  even  a scrap  of 
paper  left  unheeded.  He  could  enjoy  every  convenience  of  life,  and  yet 
he  acted  in  the  smallest  things  like  a man  who  was  not  to  continue  an 
hour  in  one  place.  He  seemed  always  at  home,  settled,  satisfied,  and 
happy,  and  yet  was  ready  every  hour  to  take  a journey  of  a thousand 
miles. 

His  conversation  was  always  pleasing,  and  frequently  interesting  and 
instructive  in  the  highest  degree.  He  joined  in  every  kind  of  discourse 
that  was  innocent.  As  he  knew  that  all  nature  is  full  of  God,  he  became 
all  things  to  all  men  in  conversing  on  those  subjects;  but  his  delight 
was  to  speak  of  God  as  'being  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself^  and 
he  strove  to  bring  every  conversation  to  this  point.  He  generally  con- 
cluded the  conversation  with  two  or  three  verses  of  a hymn,  illustrative 
of  what  had  just  been  spoken;  and  this  he  was  enabled  to  do  from  the 
inexhaustible  stores  of  his  own,  but  especially  of  his  brother’s,  poetry, 
of  which  his  memory  was  a rich  repository. 

Besides  his  journal,  in  which  he  recorded  the  daily  events  of  his  life, 
he  kept  a diary,  in  which  he  exactly  noted  the  employment  of  every 
hour.  He  wrote  this  in  short-hand.  His  hour  of  rising,  his  preaching, 
what  he  read  or  wrote  till  breakfast,  and  the  after  duties  of  the  day, 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chakactee. 


581 


were  faithfully  recorded.  He  carried  a book  of  this  kind  continually 
with  him,  in  the  first  page  of  which  be  always  wrote  this  concise  deter- 
mination: “I  resolve,  Beo  jmante,  1.  To  devote  an  hour  morning  and 
evening,  [to  private  prayer:]  no  pretense  or  excuse  whatsoever;  2.  To 
converse  Kara  Qeovj  no  lightness,  no  evTpane'kia." 

There  is  another  of  Wesley’s  “helpers”  whose  testimony 
deserves  attention.  For  seventeen  years,  Wesley  had  treated 
Samuel  Bradburn  as  a friend  and  a brother.  Bradburn  had 
not  the  literary  attainments  of  Flampson  and  Whitehead,  but 
he  was  a man  of  great  shrewdness,  of  strong  common  sense, 
thoroughly  honest,  and  was  one  of  the  ablest,  and,  beyond  all 
doubt,  the  most  eloquent,  of  Wesley’s  itinerant  preachers. 
Moreover,  there  was  no  man  who  lived  in  more  familiar  inter- 
course with  W esley  than  himself.  He  wrote  : * 

Mr.  Wesley  had  a fine  taste  for  poetry,  and  composed  himself  many  of 
our  hymns ; but  he  told  me  that  he  and  his  brother  agreed  not  to  dis- 
tinguish their  hymns  from  each  other’s.  He  frequently  chose  to  express 
his  thoughts,  both  in  conversation  and  preaching,  in  verse,  and  even  in 
rhyme.  Some  have  thought  him  in  preaching  too  poetical,  because  he 
often  used  bold  and  figurative  expressions.  He  considered  words  as 
poor,  ill-drawn  pictures  of  our  thoughts.  He  once  told  me  that  he  heard 
his  father  say,  “ One  certain  proof  of  a man’s  having  little  genius  was 
his  being  difficult  and  nice  in  choosing  words.”  Mr.  Wesley  never  ap- 
peared greater,  in  my  esteem,  than  when  the  vast  conceptions  of  his 
towering  soul  seemed  to  beggar  all  the  extravagance  of  hyperbole.  Yet 
he  knew  how  “to  restrain  the  fury  of  his  fancy  within  the  bounds  of 
reason.”  He  was  no  enthusiast.  He  was  not  a random  preacher.  I 
recollect  his  bringing  a charge  in  one  of  our  Conferences  against  a 
preacher  for  preaching  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  extempore,  that  is 
without  premeditation.  No  man  living  more  firmly  believed  in,  or 
attended  to,  a divine  influence  than  he  did.  I have  seen  him  when  his 
holy  soul  was  elevated  with  heavenly  joy  and  drawn  out  by  supernatural 
assistance  to  a great  degree  of  devout  ardor;  but  this  did  not  so  much 
respect  what  he  said  as  wTiat  he  felt  and  his  manner  of  saying  it.  His 
matter  was  taken  from  the  oracles  of  God. 


* As  far  as  possible,  and  to  avoid  repetition,  remarks  in  Bradburn’s  account  of 
Wesley  which  in  substance  are  the  same  as  those  already  given,  are  here  omitted. 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


He  was  different  from  himself  at  different  times;  but  tliis  was  when 
nature  was  almost  exliausted,  or  when  he  had  been  unavoidably  engaged 
in  company  or  business  till  it  was  time  to  begin  the  service.  But  even 
then  he  had  not  his  subject  to  seek,  because  he  constantly  preached  from 
some  part  of  the  Scriptures  for  the  day,  as  appointed  in  the  Prayer  Book. 
Commonly  the  first  thing  he  did  in  the  morning  was  to  read  these,  and 
then  he  fixed  upon  the  texts  he  intended  to  preach  on  through  the  day, 
which  were  frequently  four.  I was  always  sorry  when  I knew  he  was  to 
preach  so  often,  because,  in  general,  one  or  two  of  his  sermons  would  be 
far  beneath  what  he  could  have  made  them  had  he  preached  but  twice. 
But  when  he  shone  the  least,  what  a gentleman  in  Edinburgh  said  (wdio 
had  heard  him  at  an  unfavorable  time)  was  always  true : “ It  was  not  a 
masterly  sermon.^  yet  none  but  a master  could  have  preached  it.”  * 

As  an  orator, he  was  a perfect  model  to  every  Christian  minister.  His 
gestures  were  graceful  and  harmonious.  His  style  was  delicately  chaste, 
yet  he  lias  said,  in  a letter  now  before  me,  “As  for  me,  I never  think  of 
my  style  at  all,' but  just  set  down  the  words  that  come  first;  only  when  I 
transcribe  any  thing  for  the  press,  then  I think  it  my  duty  to  see  that 
every  phrase  be  clear,  pure,  proper,  and  easy.  Conciseness,  wliich  is  now, 
as  it  were,  natural  to  me,  brings  quantum  sufficit  of  strength."  In  this 
account  there  is  every  property  of  a good  style,  and  such  was  his  at  all 
times.  He  was  always  accurate  without  being  stiff,  and  clear  without 
ever  being  tedious.  There  was  an  easy  simplicity  in  his  whole  deport- 
ment, but  nothing  mean  or  childisli.  In  his  pathetic  energy  there  was 
no  rant  or  wild-fire ; nor  was  he  ever  pompous,  though  mostly  elegant, 
and  often  sublime. 

Few  men  had  a greater  share  of  vivacity  when  in  company  with  those 
he  loved,  especially  on  his  journeys.  If  the  weather  or  the  roads  hap- 
pened to  be  disagreeable,  or  if  any  little  accident  befel  any  of  his  fellow- 
travelers,  he  would  strive  with  inimitable  turns  of  wit  to  keep  up  their 
spirits;  so  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  be  dull  or  dissatisfied  in  his 
company.  The  first  time  I was  introduced  to  him,  I was  greatly  struck 
with  his  cheerfulness  and  affability.  From  seeing  him  only  in  the  pulpit, 
and  considering  his  exalted  station  in  the  Church  of  Christ,  I supposed 
he  would  be  reserved  and  austere;  but  how  agreeably  was  I disap- 
pointed when,  with  a pleasant  smile,  he  took  me  by  the  hand,  and  said, 
“Beware  of  the  fear  of  man,  and  be  sure  you  speak  flat  and  plain  in 
preaching.”  I never  saw  him  low-spirited  in  my  life,  nor  could  he 


The  “ gentleman  in  Edinburgh  ” was  Beattie,  the  poet. — Editok. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chaeacteb. 


583 


endure  to  be  with  a melancholy  person.  When  speaking  of  those  who 
imagine  that  religion  makes  men  morose  or  gloomy,  I have  heard  him 
say  in  the  pulpit,  “Sour  godliness  is  the  devil’s  religion.”  He  never 
suffered  himself  to  be  carried  away  by  extreme  grief.  I once  heard  him 
remark,  “I  dare  no  more  fret  than  cvrse  and  swear."  Large  numbers  of 
his  friends  crowded  together  wherever  he  went  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of 
his  conversation.  On  such  occasions  he  concealed  the  philosopher  and 
divine  in  the  social  companion.  He  was  a truly  well-bred  man.  Had 
he  lived  in  a court  all  his  days  his  address  could  not  have  been  more 
easy  and  polite,  and  yet  he  could  be  quite  content  among  the  most 
homely  peasants,  and  suit  his  discourse  to  the  meanest  capacity.  His 
courtesy  to  every  one  was  engaging,  but  especially  to  the  young.  I have 
often  heard  him  say,  “ I reverence  a young  man,  because  he  may  be  use- 
ful when  I am  dead.”  He  was  very  fond  of  children,  though  he  never 
had  any  of  his  own.  Hundreds  of  these  will  remember  with  pleasure, 
perhaps  with  profit,  the  notice  he  took  of  them. 

He  had  an  invincible  attachment  to  truth  and  justice.  He  used  no 
guile  himself,  neither  did  he  suspect  it  in  others.  This  sometimes  laid 
him  open  to  the  crafty  designs  of  insinuating  parasites,  who  took  ad- 
vantage of  his  credulity,  and  imposed  upon  his  good  nature.  If  ever  he 
acted  wrong,  it  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  misplaced  confldence  he  had  in 
such.  It  was  not  easy  to  make  him  allow  that  any  one  had  purposely 
deceived  him;  and,  when  convinced  by  facts,  he  endeavored  to  cover 
the  fault,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  excuse  the  offender. 

He  did  not  love  to  reprove  any  one,  not  even  the  meanest  domestic. 
This  was  the  more  surprising  because  no  man  was  ever  better  qualifled 
to  reprove  in  every  form.  He  could  be  poignantly  satirical  when  he 
thought  it  the  most  proper  method  to  expose  the  ridiculous  singularity 
of  a pedant,  or  to  chastise  the  supercilious  airs  of  a coxcomb;  but  he 
considered  it  as  meddling  with  edge  tools,  and  gave  very  little  counte- 
nance to  it,  either  in  himself  or  others.  He  did  not  love  a trifler.  Any 
thing  like  religious  buffoonery  he  abhorred.  Above  all,  any  lightness 
in  the  pulpit  was  an  abomination  to  him. 

His  powers  of  persuasion  were  great,  especially  when  engaged  in  be- 
half of  the  poor.  Hence  frequent  applications  were  made  to  him  to 
preach  charity  sermons  in  many  of  the  churches  in  London.  The  poor 
lay  near  his  heart.  Of  this  he  gave  the  most  unequivocal  demonstration 
through  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  He  not  only  preached  sermons  in 
their  behalf,  but  contrived  by  various  other  methods  to  raise  contribu- 
tions for  them.  I myself  have  gone  with  him  from  house  to  house,  both 
37 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Yoltjme. 


to  our  own  people  and  others,  to  beg  money  to  buy  bread,  coals,  and 
clotliing  for  the  poor  in  London;  and  that  not  when  the  w’eather  was 
warm  and  dry,  but  in  the  depth  of  winter,  when  the  melted  snow  has 
been  over  our  shoes. 

His  diligence  to  serve  the  poor,  however,  by  these  methods  was  not  to 
save  his  own  money.  He  gave  all  he  could,  whicli  was  no  inconsider- 
able sum.  In  the  year  1781  I traveled  with  him  through  several  circuits, 
and  I know  that  he  gave  away,  from  the  Bristol  Conference  of  1780  to 
the  Leeds  Conference  of  1781,  in  prinate  charities,  above  £1,400.  He 
told  me  liimself,  in  1787,  that  he  never  gave  away  out  of  his  own  pocket 
less  than  £1,000  a year. 

To  enable  him  to  do  this  he  had,  first,  the  profits  of  the  books  which 
the  preachers  sold,  except  ten  per  cent,  commission  which  some  of  them 
took ; he  had,  secondly,  from  London  and  Bristol,  upon  an  average,  about 
£150  per  annum  by  private  subscription;  thirdly,  the  Society  in  London 
gave  him  £30  a year,  which  was  all  the  fixed  stipend  he  had  ; fourthly, 
almost  every  year  there  were  legacies  left  to  him ; fifthly,  as  he  went  his 
journeys,  the  friends  in  each  large  Society  w’here  he  preached  generally 
gave  him  a few  pounds  when  he  was  leaving  them.  Thus,  literally, 
having  nothing,  he  possessed  all  things,  and,  though  poor,  he  made 
many  rich.  His  manner  also  of  bestowing  his  charities  was  truly  pleas- 
ing. He  never  relieved  poor  people  in  the  street  but  he  either  took  off  or 
moved  his  hat  to  them  when  they  thanked  him;  and,  in  private,  he  took 
care  not  to  hurt  the  most  refined  feelings  of  those  whom  he  assisted. 

His  modesty  prevented  his  saying  much  of  his  own  experience.  In 
public  he  very  seldom,  hardly  ever,  spoke  of  the  state  of  his  own  soul; 
but  he  was  sufficiently  explicit  among  his  friends.  He  told  me  in  1781, 
that  his  experience  might  almost  at  any  time  be  found  in  the  following 
lines: 

“ 0 Thou,  who  earnest  from  above. 

The  pure  celestial  fire  to  impart. 

Kindle  a flame  of  sacred  love 
On  the  mean  altar  of  my  heart. 

“ There  let  it  for  thy  glory  burn. 

With  inextinguishable  blaze; 

And  trembling  to  its  source  return. 

In  humble  love  and  fervent  praise.” 

I could  indulge  a melancholy  pleasure  in  expatiating  on  his  humility, 
his  love,  his  communion  with  God,  and  all  the  graces  of  the  Spirit 
which  he  so  largely  possessed,  but  want  of  space  forbids.  Very  few  of 
his  sons  in  the  gospel  have  had  greater  opportunities  of  being  thoroughly 


Wesley’s  Death  aot)  Chaeactee. 


585 


acquainted  with  him  during  the  last  seventeen  years  than  I have  had. 
I have  slept  with  him  hundreds  of  nights.  I have  traveled  with  him 
thousands  of  miles.  I lived  in  what  he  called  his  own  family,  in  Lon- 
don and  Bristol,  five  years  together.  I have  conversed  with  him  on 
many  subjects.  I knew  his  opinions,  his  disposition,  and  the  very 
secrets  of  his  heart.  Had  he  not  discovered  that  he  was  a man,  by  a 
few  instances  of  human  frailty,  those  who  knew  him  would  have  been 
in  danger  of  idolatry.  He  has  had  his  day.  He  shone  with  distin- 
guished luster  for  many  years.  He  has  been  the  means  of  dispelling 
the  darkness  of  ignorance  and  error  from  the  minds  of  thousands.  He 
has  often  cheered  the  spirits  of  such  as  were  ready  to  perish.  He  has, 
in  the  hands  of  God,  revived  genuine  piety  over  the  land,  and  made 
thousands  fruitful  in  good  works;  and  has  left  behind  him  proofs  of 
greatness  which  will  last  till  the  visible  creation  shall  be  no  more.  His 
disinterested  love  to  the  poor,  his  unabating  zeal  in  setting  forth  the 
Lord  Christ  to  perishing  sinners,  his  deep  acquaintance  with  divine 
things,  and  his  amazing  labors  in  the  Church,  rendered  him  the  delight 
of  his  friends,  the  glory  of  his  family,  and  the  wonder  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived. 

These  are  artless  statements,  but,  coming  from  such  a man 
as  Bradburn,  they  deserve  attention.  If  it  he  objected  that, 
excepting  Hampson,  all  the  foregoing  sketches  were  written 
by  Wesley’s  friends  and  preachers,  it  may  be  answered,  that 
if  the  friends  were  skillful  and  were  honest,  their  recitals  are 
enhanced  in  value  by  the  friendship  which  existed  between 
them  and  their  noble  chieftain.  But,  to  silence  aU  objection, 
two  more  critiques,  wiitten  by  Wesley’s  contemporaries,  are 
added. 

The  first  is  by  Alexander  Knox,  Esq.,  who  in  his  boyhood 
became  a Methodist,  but  who,  before  his  teens  were  ended, 
withdrew  from  Wesley’s  connection — a literary  man  of  no  mean 
order,  the  private  secretary  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  and  the  bosom 
friend  of  Bishop  Jebb;  one  of  Wesley’s  correspondents  to  the 
end  of  Wesley’s  Hfe;  but  one  who  honestly  demurred  to  not 
a few  of  W esley’s  opinions  and  of  W esley’s  acts.  He  wrote  : — 

I knew  Mr.  Wesley  well.  At  an  early  age  I was  a member  of  his  So- 
ciety, but  my  connection  with  it  was  not  of  long  duration.  Having  a 


586 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


growing  disposition  to  think  for  myself,  I could  not  adopt  the  opinions 
which  were  current  among  his  followers ; and  before  I was  twenty  years 
of  age  my  relish  for  their  religious  practices  had  abated.  Still,  my  ven- 
eration for  Mr.  Wesley  suffered  no  diminution;  rather,  as  I became  more 
capable  of  estimating  him  without  prejudice,  my  conviction  of  his  ex- 
cellence, and  my  attachment  to  his  goodness,  gained  fresh  strength  and 
deeper  cordiality. 

Never  was  the  exquisite  urbanity  of  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  more 
perfectly  exhibited  in  a Christian  of  later  days  than  in  him.  Never  shall 
I see,  in  this  lower  world,  St.  Paul’s  sweet  portraiture  of  charity  more 
vividly  realized,  in  all  its  blessed  features,  than  in  that  charming  old  man. 
My  feelings  toward  him  were  not  merely  those  of  high  veneration,  but 
of  sincere  friendship  and  grateful  affection.  During  years  of  almost 
hopeless  afl3.iction  he  was  my  tender  and  constant  comforter;  writing  the 
wisest  and  gentlest  letters  to  me  in  the  midst  of  his  multitudinous  avo- 
cations, and,  in  the  true  spirit  of  Him  who  wept  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus, 
often  postponing  concerns  of  far  more  plausible  importance,  in  order  to 
infuse  some  little  comfort  into  the  languishing  bosom  of  one  absent  friend. 
I have  i-emonstrated  to  him  on  what  I considered  to  be  erroneous  in  his 
proceedings  with  a freedom  and  plainness  which,  in  such  circumstances 
as  his  were,  nothing  but  a heart  mortified  to  pride  and  softened  by 
Christian  love  could  have  borne  with  patience ; yet  he  bore  with  me, 
not  only  patiently  but  humbly,  proving  that  he  had  truly  learned  of  Him 
w’ho  was  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  Above  the  vile  allegations  of  ambi- 
tion and  vanity  my  precious  old  friend  soared  as  much  as  the  eagle 
above  the  glow-worm.  Great  minds  are  not  vain ; and  his  was  a great 
mind,  if  any  mind  can  be  made  great  by  disinterested  benevolence, 
spotless  purity,  and  simple  devotedness  to  that  one  Supreme  Good,  in 
whom,  with  the  united  aladr/ijii  of  the  philosopher  and  the  saint,  he  saw 
and  loved  and  adored  all  that  was  infinitely  amiable,  true,  sublime,  and 
beatific.  I believe  he  was  raised  up  for  the  very  purpose  of  sublimating 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  in  these  later  times,  and  freeing  it  from  those 
repulsive  concomitants  by  which  its  bright  aspect  had  been  enveloped 
in  clouds  and  darkness.  Doubtless  the  self-same  principles  had  been  en- 
shrined in  the  ancient  forms  of  our  liturgy ; but,  however  sincerely  their 
spirit  might  often  have  been  inhaled,  the  height  and  depth  of  their  im- 
port had  been  rarely  adverted  to  until  Mr.  Wesley  arose,  as  if  to  cast  a 
renewed  irradiation  on  the  scriptural  religion  of  the  heart.  Herbert,  Tay- 
lor, Ken,  had  each  of  them  emitted  some  bright  rays,  and  are  on  this  ac- 
count estimable ; but  it  was  reserved  for  John  Wesley  to  make  the  inward 


Wesley’s  Death  aed  Chaeactee. 


587 


spirit  and  power  of  Christianity  his  ruling  theme,  and  to  reject,  without 
reserve,  all  those  clogs  and  fetters  by  which  their  loveliness  had  been 
marred  and  their  energies  impeded. 

In  1789  I spent  some  days  with  him,  and  endeavored  to  consider  him, 
not  so  much  with  the  eye  of  a friend  as  with  the  impartiality  of  a philos- 
opher; and  I must  declare,  every  hour  I spent  in  his  company  afforded 
me  fresh  reasons  for  esteem  and  veneration.  So  fine  an  old  man  I never 
saw.  The  happiness  of  his  mind  beamed  forth  in  his  countenance ; every 
look  showed  how  fully  he  enjoyed  “the  gay  remembrance  of  a life 
well  spent.” 

Wherever  he  went  he  diffused  a portion  of  his  own  felicity.  Easy  and 
affable  in  his  demeanor,  he  accommodated  himself  to  every  kind  of 
company,  and  showed  how  happily  the  most  finished  courtesy  may  be 
blended  with  the  most  perfect  piety.  In  his  conversation  we  might  be 
at  a loss  whether  to  admire  most  his  fine  classical  taste,  his  extensive 
knowledge  of  men  and  things,  or  his  overflowing  goodness  of  heart. 
While  the  grave  and  serious  were  charmed  with  his  wisdom,  his  sportive 
sallies  of  innocent  mirth  delighted  even  the  young  and  thoughtless ; 
and  both  saw  in  his  uninterrupted  cheerfulness  the  excellency  of  true 
religion.  No  cynical  remarks  on  the  levity  of  youth  embittered  his  dis- 
courses. No  applausive  retrospect  to  past  times  marked  his  present 
discontent.  In  him  even  old  age  appeared  delightful,  like  an  evening 
without  a cloud,  and  it  was  impossible  to  observe  him  without  wishing 
fervently,  “May  my  latter  end  be  like  his!  ” I was  never  so  happy  as 
while'  with  him,  and  scarcely  ever  felt  more  poignant  regret  than  at 
parting  from  him;  for  well  I knew  “I  ne’er  should  look  upon  his  like 
again.” 

One  more  testimony  from  an  outside  observer.  John  ITiebols, 
in  1791,  was  in  tbe  full  vigor  of  his  intellectual  manhood  ; was 
an  enormous  reader  ; the  friend  of  the  chief  literati  of  the  age  ; 
was  already  accumulating  the  ‘‘  Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  Eight- 
eenth Century,”  which  he  afterward  published  in  ten  octavo 
volumes  ; and  was  the  proprietor  and  the  editor  of  the  “ Gen- 
tleman’s Magazine,”  the  ablest  and  best  periodical  of  the  day. 
In  the  number  for  March,  1791,  Mr.  Hichols  inserted  a long 
biographical  account  of  Wesley;  and,  in  the  number  for  May, 
an  anonymous  letter,  written  by  one  who  expressly  stated  he 
was  not  a Methodist,  and  probably  one  or  both  of  these  pro- 


588 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


ductions  were  by  the  editor  himself.  The  following  is  ex- 
tracted from  them : — 

The  great  point  in  -which  John  Wesley’s  name  and  mission  will  be 
honored  is  this:  he  directed  his  labors  toward  those  who  had  no  instruct- 
or ; to  the  highways  and  hedges ; to  the  mines  in  Cornwall  and  the 
colliers  in  Kingswood.  These  unhappy  creatures  married  and  buried 
among  themselves,  and  often  committed  murders  with  impunity  before 
the  Methodists  sprang  up.  By  the  humane  and  active  endeavors  of  Mr. 
Wesley  and  his  brother  Charles,  a sense  of  decency,  morals,  and  religion, 
was  introduced  into  the  lowest  classes  of  mankind ; the  ignorant  were  in- 
structed; the  wretched  relieved;  and  the  abandoned  reclaimed.  Out- 
casts of  society  were  changed  into  useful  members ; even  savages  were 
civilized,  and  lips  were  filled  with  prayer  and  praise  that  had  been  ac- 
customed only  to  oaths  and  imprecations. 

Mr.  Wesley  met  with  great  opposition  from  many  of  the  clergy,  and 
unhandsome  treatment  from  the  magistrates;  but  was  one  of  the  few 
characters  who  outlived  enmity  and  prejudice,*  and  received  in  his  lat- 
ter days  every  mark  of  respect  from  every  denomination. 

Among  his  -virtues,  forgiveness  to  his  enemies  and  liberality  to  the 
poor  were  most  remarkable.  He  has  been  known  to  receive  into  even 
his  confidence  those  who  had  basely  injured  him.  All  the  profit  of  his 
literary  labors  (and  it  amounted  to  an  immense  sum,  for  he  was  his  own 
printer  and  bookseller)  was  devoted  to  charitable  purposes. 

On  a review  of  the  character  of  this  extraordinary  man,  it  appears 
that  though  he  was  endowed  with  eminent  talents,  he  was  more  dis- 
tinguished by  their  use  than  even  by  their  possession.  Though  his 
taste  was  classic,  and  his  manners  elegant,  he  sacrificed  that  society  in 
which  he  was  particularly  calculated  to  shine ; gave  up  those  prefer- 
ments which  his  abilities  must  have  obtained ; and  devoted  a long  life 
in  practicing  and  enforcing  the  plainest  duties.  Instead  of  being  “an 
ornament  to  literature,”  he  was  a blessing  to  his  fellow-creatures ; in- 
stead of  “the  genius  of  the  age,”  he  was  the  servant  of  God.  His  his- 
tory, if  well  written,  will  certainly  be  important ; for,  in  every  respect — 


* This  is  scarcely  true,  for  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1791,  just  before  Wes- 
ley was  put  into  his  coffin,  there  was  published  an  8vo  pamphlet  of  66  pages,  en- 
titled, “ A Review  of  the  Policy,  Doctrines,  and  Morals  of  the  Methodists,”  which, 
for  falsehood  and  virulence,  was  not  surpassed  in  the  bitterest  days  of  Wesley’s 
persecutions — a pamphlet  vigorously  written,  but  animated  with  almost  infernal 
malice. 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chaeactek. 


589 


as  tlie  founder  of  the  most  numerous  sect  in  the  kingdom,  as  a man,  and 
as  a writer — he  must  be  considered  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
characters  tliis  or  any  age  ever  produced. 

His  motives  were  imputed  to  the  love  of  popularity,  ambition,  and 
lucre ; but  it  now  appears  that  he  was  actuated  by  a disinterested  regard 
to  the  immortal  interest  of  mankind.  He  labored,  and  studied,  and 
preached,  and  wrote,  to  propagate  what  he  believed  to  be  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  The  intervals  of  these  engagements  were  employed  in  govern- 
ing the  Churches  he  had  planted,  regulating  the  concerns  of  his 
numerous  Societies,  and  assisting  the  necessities,  solving  the  difficulties, 
and  soothing  the  afflictions,  of  his  hearers.  Had  he  loved  wealth,  he 
might  have  accumulated  without  bounds.  Had  he  been  fond  of  power, 
his  influence  would  have  been  worth  courting  by  any  party.  I do  not 
say  that  he  was  without  ambition : he  liad  that  which  Christianity  need 
not  blush  at,  and  which  virtue  is  proud  to  confess.  I do  not  mean  that 
which  is  gratified  by  splendor  and  large  possessions;  but  that  which 
commands  the  hearts  and  affections,  the  homage  and  gratitude,  of  tliou- 
sands.  For  him  they  felt  sentiments  of  veneration  only  inferior  to 
those  which  they  paid  to  Heaven : to  him  they  looked  as  their  father, 
their  benefactor,  their  guide  to  glory  and  immortality;  for  him  they 
fell  prostrate  before  God  with  prayers  and  tears,  to  spare  his  doom  and 
prolong  his  stay.  Such  a recompense  as  this  is  sufficient  to  repay  the 
toils  of  the  longest  life. 

The  ardor  of  his  spirit  was  neither  damped  by  difficulty  nor  subdued 
by  age.  This  was  ascribed  by  himself  to  the  power  of  divine  grace ; by 
the  world  to  enthusiasm.  Be  it  what  it  may,  it  is  what  philosophers 
must  envy  and  infidels  respect : it  is  that  which  gives  energy  to  the 
soul,  and  without  which  there  can  be  no  greatness  or  heroism.  He  had 
a vigor  and  elevation  of  mind  which  nothing  but  the  belief  of  the 
divine  favor  and  presence  could  inspire.  This  threw  a luster  round  his 
infirmities,  changed  his  bed  of  sickness  into  a triumphal  car,  and  made 
his  exit  resemble  an  apotheosis  rather  than  a dissolution. 

His  great  object  was  to  revive  the  obsolete  doctrines  and  extin- 
guished spirit  of  the  Church  of  England ; and  they  who  are  its  friends 
cannot  be  his  enemies.  Yet  for  this  he  was  treated  as  a fanatic  and 
impostor,  and  exposed  to  every  species  of  slander  and  persecution. 
Even  bishops  and  dignitaries  entered  into  the  lists  against  him ; but  he 
never  declined  the  combat,  and  generally  proved  victorious.  After  sur- 
viving almost  all  his  adversaries,  and  acquiring  respect  among  those 
who  were  the  most  distant  from  him  in  principles,  he  lived  to  see  the 


590 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Yolume. 


plant  he  had  reared  spreading  its  branches  far  and  wide,  and  inviting, 
not  only  those  kingdoms,  but  the  western  world,  to  repose  under  its 
shade.  No  sect,  since  the  first  ages  of  Christianity,  could  boast  a 
founder  of  such  extensive  talents  and  endowments.  The  great  purpose 
of  his  life  was  doing  good.  For  this  he  relinquished  all  honor  and 
preferment;  to  this  he  dedicated  all  the  powers  of  body  and  mind;  at 
all  times  and  in  all  places — in  season  and  out  of  season — by  gentleness, 
by  terror,  by  argument,  by  persuasion,  by  reason,  by  interest,  by  every 
motive  and  every  inducement — he  strove  with  unwearied  assiduity  to 
turn  men  from  the  error  of  their  ways,  and  awaken  them  to  virtue  and 
religion.  To  the  bed  of  sickness  or  the  couch  of  prosperity — to  the 
prison  or  the  hospital — the  house  of  mourning  or  the  house  of  feasting — 
wherever  there  was  a friend  to  serve  or  a soul  to  save — he  readily 
repaired  to  administer  assistance  or  advice,  reproof  or  consolation. 
He  thought  no  office  too  humiliating,  no  condescension  too  low,  no  un- 
dertaking too  arduous,  to  reclaim  the  meanest  of  God’s  offspring. 

. Perhaps  this  is  the  most  eulogistic  encomium  concerning 
Wesley  that  has  ever  been  published ; and  yet  it  was  written, 
not  by  any  of  Wesley’s  followers,  but  by  a disinterested  ob- 
server ; and  was  published  in  a periodical  in  which,  almost  times 
without  number,  he,  his  doctrines,  his  preachers,  and  his 
people,  had  been  misrepresented,  abused,  lampooned,  ridiculed, 
and  denounced ; and  from  which  neither  he  nor  his  friends, 
even  in  these  its  benigner  days,  had  the  slightest  reason  to 
expect  any  thing  more  favorable  than  honest  criticism  and 
impartial  justice.  0 temjpora  ! 0 mores  ! 

Much  remains  unsaid ; but  our  space  is  gone.  One  hundred 
and  forty  years  ago  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield  were 
the  most  abused  men  in  England.  Now  Wesley  is  hardly 
ever  mentioned  but  with  affectionate  respect.  In  the  litera- 
ture of  the  age ; in  its  lectures  and  debates ; in  chapels  and 
in  churches  ; in  synods,  congresses,  and  all  sorts  of  confer- 
ences ; even  in  Parliament  itself,  by  the  highest  lords,  and 
the  most  illustrious  commoners,  the  once  persecuted  Methodist 
is  now  extolled ; and  the  judgment  of  Southey,  in  a letter  to 
Wilberforce,  is  confirmed:  “I  consider  Wesley  as  the  most 


Wesley’s  Death  and  Chaeactee. 


591 


influential  mind  of  tlie  last  century : tlie  man  who  will  have 
produced  the  greatest  effects  centuries,  or  perhaps  millenniums, 
hence,  if  the  present  race  of  men  should  continue  so  long.” 

Wesley  was  not  without  faults.  Ko  man  ever  has  been, 
except  “ the  Man  Christ  Jesus  y ” but  it  may  be  safely  as- 
serted that  Wesley’s  faults  were,  when  compared  with  those 
of  other  distinguished  men,  few  and  trivial.  There  was  a 
wholeness  about  his  character  such  as  is  seldom  equaled.  His 
'physique,  small  but  beautiful ; his  genius ; his  wit ; his  pene- 
tration ; his  judgment ; his  memory ; his  courteousness ; his 
dress  ; his  manners  ; his  voice  ; his  eloquence ; his  diligence  ; 
his  beneflcence ; his  religion — made  him  as  perfect  as  we  ever 
expect  man  to  be  on  this  side  heaven.  He  had  no  eccen- 
tricities, as  most  great  and  good  men  have — no  oblique  pro- 
pensities of  intellect  or  heart.  He  was  a man  sui  generis. 
He  stands  alone.  He  has  had  no  successor.  Ho  one  like  him 
went  before  him.  Ho  contemporary  was  his  co-equal.  He 
was  employed  by  God  in  beginning  one  of  the  greatest  works 
ever  wrought  on  earth.  He  was  ahead  of  his  age ; and  com- 
menced most  of  the  great  movements  that  are  now  so  popular. 

His  industry  is  almost  without  a parallel.  In  many  things 
he  was  gentle  and  easy  to  be  entreated ; but  his  earnestness 
in  redeeming  time  was  inexorable.  “ I have  lost  ten  minutes 
forever ! ” he  once  exclaimed,  when  kept  waiting  for  his  car- 
riage. “ You  have  no  need  to  be  in  a hurry,”  said  a friend : 
“ Hurry ! ” he  replied,  “ I have  no  time  to  be  in  a hurry ! ” 
His  journeys,  all  things  being  considered,  were  quite  enough 
to  exhaust  the  strength  of  any  ordinary  man ; so,  again,  were 
the  sermons  he  preached ; and  so,  again,  were  the  books  he 
wrote.  Labors  amply  sufficient  to  fill  three  men’s  lives  were 
in  him  united  in  one.  Looking  at  his  travels,  the  marvel  is 
how  he  found  time  to  write ; and  looking  at  his  writings,  the 
marvel  is  how  he  found  time  to  preach.  His  hands  were 
always  full ; but  he  was  never  flurried.  He  was  ever  moving ; 
but  showed  no  more  bustle  than  a planet  in  its  course.  His 


592 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


work  was  too  great  to  allow  tiafles  to  divert  him ; his  en- 
gagements were  too  many  to  permit  him  to  employ  more 
time  upon  any  than  was  absolutely  requisite.  Hence,  in  his 
sermons,  his  books,  his  letters,  the  reader  always  finds  multum 
in  jparvo.  Every-where,  every  hour  was  so  timed  and  oc- 
cupied that  he  said  nothing  more  than  he  wished  to  say ; and 
said  even  that  in  the  fewest  words  possible.  He  had  neither 
leisure  nor  inchnation  for  flourishes.  His  object  was  to  state 
truths  with  mathematical  precision.  Mere  ornament  would 
have  been,  to  his  truth-telling  style,  as  much  out  of  place  as 
decorated  letters  to  the  progressing  signs  of  an  algebraic 
equation.  Hot  for  want  of  genius,  but  for  want  of  time, 
and  for  want  of  inclination  to  make  it  othervdse,  his  style  is 
one  of  naked  and  self-dependent  strength,  unaccompanied  by 
gaudy  coloring,  and  equally  undiluted  with  the  pretentious 
puerilities  of  weak  and  little  minds.  It  is  impossible  to 
abridge  his  writings  without  leaving  out  ideas  as  well  as 
words.  Who  can  abridge  Euclid’s  “ Elements  ” without  maim- 
ing them?  And  who  can  take  from  the  works  ,of  Wesley 
without  reducing  their  specific  gravity  ? 

This  remark  equally  applies  to  all  his  writings  : his  journals, 
so  unique  in  literature ; his  sermons,  a body  of  doctrinal  and 
practical  theology,  which,  for  brevity  and  clearness  of  ex- 
pression, cannot  be  surpassed ; his  controversial  tracts,  full  of 
trenchant  logic;  his  Hotes  upon  the  Old  and  Hew  Testament 
Scriptures ; his  letters  to  all  kinds  of  people,  young  and  old ; 
his  grammars  of  languages,  ancient  and  modern ; his  prefaces 
to  all  sorts  of  books;  and  his  treatises  upon  all  sorts  of  sub- 
jects, moral  and  political.  Let  the  reader  look  at  Wesley  in 
whatever  light  he  pleases — as  a hymnologist,  an  evangelist,  a 
theologian,  a logician,  a philosopher,  a controversialist,  a trans- 
lator, a compiler,  an  annotator,  an  abridger  of  the  great  pro- 
ductions of  his  own  and  of  other  ages,  a benefactor,  a friend, 
a Christian — Wesley  can  hear  the  test  of  honest  criticism. 

This  man,  under  God,  moved  the  united  kingdom  by  his 


"Wesley’s  Death  ahd  Chaeactee. 


593 


activity  and  religions  power;  liis  stalwart  itinerants  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  great  Methodist  Churches  in  the  United 
States,  and  also  in  the  W est  Indian  Islands ; at  the  present  day, 
there  are  into  the  teens  of  millions  of  human  beings  adhering 
to  his  principles,  and  reading  something  that  he  wrote — a 
hymn,  a tract,  or  a sermon — all  over  America,  in  Canada,  in 
the  West  Indies,  throughout  Europe,  in  Africa,  in  India,  in 
China,  in  Japan,  in  Asia  Minor,  in  Australia,  and  in  the  nu- 
merous islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  almost  every  day  they 
live.  But,  in  the  case  of  Wesley,  panegyric  is  out  of  place. 
He  needs  it  not.  He  is  one  of  the  very  few  of  the  distin- 
guished dead  whose  memory  can  afford  to  do  without  it.  We 
conclude,  by  applying  to  Methodism’s  “wise  master-builder” 
the  appropriate  inscription  on  the  tomb  of  the  great  architect 
of  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral,  in  which  Wesley  worshiped  on  the 
very  day  he  first  found  peace  with  God,  May  24,  1738, — 

“ Lector  / si  monumenimm  requiris,  circumspice  ! ” 


THE  WESLEY  MEMOEIAL  IN  WESTMINSTEE 

ABBEY. 


OlSr  Thursday,  March  30,  1876,  a large  eorupany  of  Wesleyan 
ministers,  laymen,  and  ladies,  called  by  special  invitation, 
met  at  Westminster  Abbey  to  witness  the  unveiling  (by  the 
Rev.  Arthur  Penrbyn  Stanley,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Westminster) 
of  the  monument  of  the  Revs.  John  and  Charles  Wesley. 
The  company  assembled  first  in  the  Chapter-house,  which,  in 
its  octagonal  sides  as  well  as  in  the  middle,  was  quite  filled. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Dean,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Frederick  James 
Jobson,  (who  had  been  the  principal  in  obtaining  the  monu- 
ment and  in  securing  it  a place  in  the  Abbey,)  supported  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Gervase  Smith,  President  of  the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence, Dr.  Osborn,  Dr.  Punshon,  Dr.  James,  Dr.  Rigg,  Dr. 
Moulton,  the  Rev.  John  Rattenbury,  Sir  Francis  Lycett,  Mr. 
Alderman  M’ Arthur,  M.  P.,  and  other  distinguished  clergy- 
men and  laymen,  addressing  the  Dean,  and  requesting  him 
to  unveil  the  monument  which,  by  the  Dean’s  permission,  had 
been  erected  in  the  venerable  Abbey,  said ; — 

“■  Under  the  mournful  circumstances  which  now  surround 
us — (the  death  of  the  Lady  Augusta) — I shall  not  attempt  any 
extended  observations.  In  consideration  of  that  sorrowful 
event  all  present  are  here  by  special  invitation ; and  you  will 
easily  see  that,  if  the  announcement  of  these  proceedings  had 
been  publicly  njade,  we  would  have  a multitude  of  Methodists 
in  the  Abbey,  who  would  block  up  every  available  space 
within.  Indeed,  I may  say  that  not  only  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands,  but,  taking  the  globe  over,  millions  of  Method- 
ists will  gratefully  rejoice  on  learning  what  is  here  taking 


The  Memorial  in  Westminster  Abbey.  595 


place  to-daj.  I have  no  doubt  that  at  the  proper  time  the 
Conference  itself  will  more  fittingly  express  its  obligation.  1 
cannot,  however,  allow  this  occasion  to  pass  without  express- 
ing my  own  personal  obligation  for  the  courteous  generosity 
you  have  evinced  in  connection  with  this  monument  from  the 
beginning.  It  is  now  about  six  years  since  arrangements  for 
it  were  commenced.  You  will  remember  how,  when  walking 
and  conversing,  together,  I made  known*  the  desire  that  there 
should  be  a monument  to  John  and  Charles  Wesley  in  West- 
minster Abbey.  To  this  you  responded  promptly  and  favor- 
ably, and  at  once  invited  me  to  come  down  and  look  out  vdth 
you  a suitable  and  available  site.  On  my  visit  to  the  Abbey 
you  not  only  selected  the  best  site  available,  but  did  what  no 
other  person  could  do — removed  obstructions,  that  the  monu- 
ment might  have  a good  and  prominent  place.  While  shrinking 
from  any  reference  which  may  touch  a wound  so  lately  opened, 
I may  yet  be  allowed  to  say,  that  another  took  a deep  interest 
in  this  monument,  went  to  look  at  the  site  proposed,  and  to 
view  and  advise  upon  it  when  under  the  skillful  hand  of  the 
sculptor,  Mr.  Adams  Acton  ; one  with  whom,  I presume,  you 
took  counsel  as  to  what  would  be  the  best  site  ; one  who, 
when  the  site  was  selected,  showed  unceasing  interest  in  the 
progress  of  the  monument,  and  who,  had  the  Lord  permitted, 
would  be  here  to  perform  what  aU  desire  you  to  do  this  day. 
But  God  has  taken  the  Lady  Augusta  to  another  world,  to  a 
better  and  more  congenial  sphere  even  than  that  in  which  she 
had  so  much  domestic  and  social  enjoyment  on  earth.  If  the 
worthy  Dean,  whose  large-hearted  catholicity  is  known  not 
only  in  Methodism  but  in  other  Churches  and  throughout  the 
world,  will  now  perform  that  service  for  us,  and  unveil  the 
monument,  we  will  all  feel  gratified  and  honored.” 

When  Dr.  Jobson  concluded.  Dean  Stanley,  in  reply,  said  : — 

“Ton  will  excuse  me,  in  the  circumstances  to  which  Dr. 
Jobson  has  alluded,  from  making  any  lengthened  response  to 
the  kind  remarks  which  he  has  addressed  to  me  on  this 


596 


The  WESLEt"  Memoeial  Volume. 


occasion ; but  I cannot  allow  sucb  a meeting  and  sncb  an  occasion 
to  pass  in  silence.  It  was  my  desire  that  this  opportunity 
should  be  marked  in  a more  solemn  and  emphatic  manner  than 
under  present  circumstances  I feel  myself  equal  to  meet.  It 
had  been  my  hope  that  on  this  day,  or  on  the  following  Sun- 
day, I should  express  at  length  the  obligation  which  the 
Church  of  England,  which  England  itself,  and  which  the 
Church  of  Christ,  owe  to  the  labors  of  John  and  Charles 
Wesley.  But  this  at  present  is  for  me  impossible.  For  I feel 
that  I cannot  now  throw  myself  into  the  subject  with  that 
wholeness  of  heart  which  is  essential  to  do  it  justice.  On 
some  future  occasion,  perhaps,  you  wiU  allow  me  to  take  the 
opportunity — it  may  be  on  the  occasion  of  one  of  the  anni- 
versaries connected  with  the  lives  of  the  two  brothers — to 
discharge  the  duty  which  it  is  still  my  hope  and  intention  to 
fulfill.  But  I will  now  briefly  say  one  or  two  words  directly 
in  connection  with  the  erection  of  this  monument. 

“ If  I remember  rightly.  Dr.  Jobson’s  proposal  was  more 
modest  than  for  that  which  has  actually  taken  place.  On  the 
occasion  to  which  he  refers,  all  he  asked  was  a monument  to 
Charles  Wesley,  as  having  been  connected  in  his  earliest  youth 
with  Westminster  school,  and  as  one  of  England’s  sweet 
psalmists  and  poets.  But  I answered,  ‘ If  Charles,  why  not 
John  ? ’ and  accordingly  the  two  brothers  were  united  together, 
and  if  the  poet  has  been  somewhat  overshadowed  by  the 
preacher,  I trust  that  neither  in  Westminster  Abbey  nor  else- 
where will  any  English  Churchman,  or  any  Nonconformist,  have 
cause  to  complain.  As  you  will  presently  see,  when  the  monu- 
ment is  uncovered,  John  Wesley  is  represented  as  preaching 
upon  his  father’s  tomb,  and  I have  always  thought  that  that  is, 
as  it  were,  a parable  which  represented  his  relation  to  orir  own 
national  institutions.  He  took  his  stand  upon  his  father’s 
tomb — on  the  venerable  and  ancestral  traditions  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  Church.  That  was  the  stand  from  which  he 
addressed  the  world ; it  was  not  from  the  points  of  disagree- 


The  Memoeial  nsr  Westminster  Abbey.  597 


ment,  but  from  the  points  of  agreement  witb  them  in  tbe 
Christian  religion  that  he  produced  those  great  effects  which 
have  never  since  died  out  in  English  Christendom.  It  is  be- 
cause of  his  having  been  in  that  age  which  I am  inclined  to 
think  has  been  unduly  disparaged — because  in  the  past  century 
he  was  the  reviver  of  religious  fervor  among  our  Churches — 
that  we  aU  feel  we  owe  to  him  a debt  of  gratitude,  and  that  he 
deserves  to  have  his  monument  placed  among  those  of  the 
benefactors  of  England. 

“Dr.  Jobson  has  referred  to  the  sad  event  which  makes  it 
impossible  for  me  to  speak  at  greater  length,  or  to  meet  you 
in  a more  hospitable  spirit  on  this  occasion ; but  I can  truly 
say  that  she  who  has  departed  would  have  rejoiced — as,  indeed, 
I trust  she  does  rejoice — that  such  a tribute  should  be  paid  to 
the  memory  of  the  two  brothers  whom  she,  with  myself,  was 
desirous  of  seeing  honored  in  the  proper  place.  She  would 
have  rejoiced  with  myself  that  such  a body  of  Wesleyan 
Methodists  should  have  been  brought  into  such  close  connection 
with  the  venerable  building.  Even  during  the  sufferings  of 
that  last  illness  she  rejoiced  in  every  thing  which  removed 
the  heartburnings  and  misunderstandings  between  the  Church 
of  England  and  the  Wesleyan  body.  She  rejoiced  to  mention 
by  name  those  Nonconformist  and  Wesleyan  ministers  whom 
she  welcomed  with  all  courtesy  and  charity  under  our  roof  and 
within  these  sacred  walls.  I must  invoke  your  sympathy,  and 
I would  ask  your  co-operation  in  carrying  on  the  work  still 
left  for  me  to  do — the  work  of  promoting  charity  and  good 
feeling  and  generous  appreciation  among  the  different  branches 
of  our  divided  Christendom.  If  I may  do  so  I will  conclude 
with  words  familiar  to  us  all,  and  which  are  now  especially 
applicable  to  myself : 

“ ‘My  company  before  is  gone, 

And  I am  left  alone  with  thee ; 

With  thee  all  night  I mean  to  stay. 

And  wrestle  till  the  break  of  day.’  ” 


598.  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Dean’s  address,  which  was  listened 
to  with  deep  emotion  and  drew  tears  from  many  eyes,  the 
company  proceeded  to  the  site  of  the  monument,  which  was  at 
once  unveiled  by  the  Dean.  The  involuntary  exclamation 
heard  on  every  hand  was,  “ Beautiful ! ” After  the  company 
had  spent  some  time  inspecting  it,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Conference,  thus  addressed  the  Dean  : 

“ On  behalf  of  the  Methodist  people  throughout  the  world, 
allow  me  to  express  to  you  their  sense  of  obligation  for  the 
honor  and  service  you  have  done  them  this  day.  They  are 
thankful  that  you  have  appreciated,  as  they  know  you  have 
long  done,  the  character  and  labors  of  the  two  "Wesleys  ; and  it 
is  a great  gratification  to  them  that  you  consented  to  unveil 
the  monument.  They  humbly  think  that  this  venerable  and 
glorious  building  will  not  be  dishonored  by  the  monument  just 
uncovered ; and  they  are  quite  sure  that  you  agree  with  them. 
Their  prayer  is,  that  you  may  long  be  spared  to  be  an  ornament 
of  the  Church  to  which  you  belong,  and  to  exert  a very  large 
and  blessed  influence  on  the  population  of  this  country.  I will 
not  attempt  to  intrude  into  the  sanctities  of  private  and  do- 
mestic life;  but,  as  already  observed,  it  was  the  earnest  hope 
of  those  associated  with  the  work  that  the  lady  to  whom 
reference  has  been  made  this  morning  should  have  done  the 
service  for  them  which  you  have  so  kindly  done.  There  is 
not  a person  present  who  does  not  share  the  mourning  which 
has  fallen  upon  the  country,  from  the  palace  to  the  cottage, 
and  over  every  part  of  Christendom,  because  of  the  great  be- 
reavement which  has  come,  not  on  the  neighborhood  alone, 
but  on  the  whole  Christian  Church.  Prom  no  hearts  do 
prayers  more  earnest  and  constant  ascend  to  heaven  on  your 
behalf  than  from  those  here  present  this  day  and  from  those 
whom  they  represent.  WiU  the  Dean  please  accept  the  warm 
and  respectful  sympathy  of  the  Methodist  people,  whose  pray- 
ers will  constantly  be  presented  to  the  throne  of  grace  that 
you  may  be  comforted  in  your  great  sorrow,  and  your  life  be 


The  Meivioeial  ik  Westmiitstee  Abbey.  601 


prolonged  to  be  a blessing  to  tbe  world.  As  I look  upon  the 
relative  position  of  this  memorial — having  on  the  right  hand 
the  monument  to  Dr.  Watts,  and  in  its  immediate  neighbor- 
hood others  bearing  names  greatly  honored  in  the  Christian 
Churches  of  this  land — I feel  that  it  is  placed  in  the  most 
fitting  position.  On  the  proceedings  of  this  day  we  look  with 
feelings  of  thankfulness  to  Almighty  God.” 

The  monument  to  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  as  seen  on  the 
preceding  page,  was  unveiled  in  Westminster  Abbey  March 
30,  1876;  on  April  7,  1876,  the  following  letter  from  Dr. 
Jobson  appeared  in  the  “Methodist  Recorder,”  London; — 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Methodist  Recorder: — Deab  Sir:  The  readers  of 
your  journal  will  be  glad  to  know  that  the  memorial  to  those  eminent 
servants  of  God,  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  has  been  erected  in  West- 
minster Abbey,  and  that  it  was  uncovered  on  Thursday  last  by  the  Very 
Kev.  Dr.  Stanley,  Dean  of  Westminster,  in  the  presence  of  a large  num- 
ber of  the  ministers  and  friends  of  Methodism. 

I am  thankful  to  report  that  the  monument  is  spoken  of  with  high 
approval  by  persons  of  taste,  and  that  it  is  recognized  not  only  as  forming 
a creditable  memorial  of  the  founder  of  Methodism  and  of  his  attached 
brother,  the  sweet  psalmist  of  our  Israel,  but  also  as  a high-class  work 
of  art,  worthy  of  a place  in  our  venerated  national  mausoleum.  I have 
not  heard  any  disparaging  criticisms  upon  it,  and  all  persons  who  view 
it  with  a critical  eye  should  remember  that  the  general  form  of  the 
monument  had  necessarily  to  be  adapted  to  the  space  allotted  for  it — 
namely,  that  of  two  feet  nine  inches  wide,  and  eight  or  nine  feet  high. 
This  space  is  now  filled  with  a massive  white  marble  tablet  of  crystal 
purity,  and  is  so  divided  by  sculptured  heads  and  figures,  and  by  lines 
of  inscription  between,  as  to  secure  for  it  as  much  unity  and  symmetry 
of  design  as  practicable.  The  monument  is  somewhat  broader  at  the 
bottom  than  at  the  top.  The  upper  part  bears  the  simple  record : — 

JOHN  WESLEY,  M.A. 

Born  June  17,  1703;  Died  March  2,  1791. 

CHAELES  WESLEY,  M.A. 

Born  December  18,  1707 ; Died  March  29,  1788. 

Within  a sunken  circle  under  this  record  are  medallion  profiles,  in  life 
size,  of  the  two  brothers.  Great  care  has  been  taken  to  have  these 
38 


602 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


modeled  from  authentic  busts  and  portraits  of  the  founder  and  poet  of 
Methodism,  taken  when  they  were  in  middle  life,  and  were  possessed  of 
full  energy  of  character,  and  also  of  fully  developed  features.  From 
these  marble  likenesses  it  will  be  seen  how  much  of  the  Wellesley  out- 
line of  countenance  appears  in  the  face  of  John  Wesley,  and  how  much 
of  poetic  genius  and  refinement  is  depicted  in  that  of  Charles  Wesley. 
It  has  been  too  much  the  practice  to  publish  portraits  of  the  brothers  as 
they  looked  in  wasted  old  age.  This  has  given  to  them  an  aspect  of 
venerableness;  but  surely  public  memorial  likenesses  of  eminent  and 
powerfully  infiuential  men  should  represent  them  in  maturity  of  life  and 
with  unshrunken  form  of  countenance.  Immediately  below  these  medal- 
lion heads  of  the  two  Wesleys  are  inscribed  the  living  and  dying  words 
of  the  elder  brother: — 

“The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us.” 

Under  this  quotation,  and  level  with  the  eye,  where  it  may  be  viewed 
to  full  advantage,  is  sculptured,  in  bold  bass-relief,  John  Wesley  preach- 
ing on  his  father’s  tombstone  in  Epworth  church  yard;  thus  at  once 
memorializing  his  birthplace  and  the  beginning  of  his  great  itinerant 
and  out-door  work  for  God.  This  portion  of  the  marble  tablet  includes, 
within  a sunken  square,  some  fifty  figures,  representing  John  Wesley  and 
his  rustic  congregation.  It  is  most  deservedly  pronounced  to  be  chaste 
in  style  and  masterly  in  execution.  The  figure  of  Wesley  presents  him 
in  comparative  youth,  clad  in  gown  and  bands,  standing  on  the  tomb  to 
proclaim  to  an  assembly  of  villagers  of  different  ages  the  way  of  salva- 
tion. The  form  and  proportions  of  Wesley’s  figure  are  admirably 
brought  out,  by  one  hand  being  stretched  forth,  indicative  of  earnest- 
ness, and  the  other  grasping  the  Bible  and  pressing  it  to  his  side,  as  if 
for  its  preciousness. 

Behind  the  preacher,  in  the  right-hand  corner,  are  grouped  together 
representatives  of  the  “helpers”  of  the  founder  of  Methodism.  And, 
to  secure  for  these  distinctiveness  of  character,  the  gifted  sculptor  has 
voluntarily,  and  by  his  own  will,  availed  himself  of  material  immediately 
at  hand,  in  busts  and  profile  medallions  of  Methodist  ministers  whose 
heads  he  had,  aforetime,  modeled  from  life  and  in  larger  size.  Among 
these  may  be  traced  the  features  of  the  late  Rev.  Thomas  Jackson,  Dr. 
Dixon,  and  Dr.  Hannah,  and  of  the  Rev.  John  Farrar,  Dr.  Osborn, 
Charles  Prest,  William  Arthur,  the  late  Luke  H.  Wiseman,  Dr.  Rigg, 
and  others.  These  figures  appear  in  the  dress  of  Wesley’s  period,  and 
are  admirably  associated  in  their  profile  representations.  Before  and  at 


The  Memorial  in  Westminstee  Abbey.  603 


the  sides  of  the  preacher  are  seen  hearers  of  both  sexes,  and  in  different 
positions,  among  tombs  and  grave-stones,  some  seated  and  others  stand- 
ing. The  likenesses  of  some  of  the  living  laity  in  Methodism,  and  of 
the  younger  members  of  their  families,  may  be  traced  in  these  figures. 
But  all,  both  ministers  and  laity,  are  so  disguised  in  the  dresses 
of  Wesley’s  time,  that  it  is  only  through  the  help  of  full  familiarity 
■with  their  portraits  that  the  resemblance  can  at  present  be  discerned, 
and  most  probably  will  be  untraceable  in  the  future.  This  bass- 
relief  has  evidently  been  a work  which,  with  the  profile  heads  above, 
has  been  wrought  out  by  the  sculptor  con  amove;  and  the  whole  re- 
flects the  highest  credit  on  the  genius  and  skill  of  Mr.  John  Adams 
Acton. 

Immediately  beneath  the  sculptured  picture  of  the  scene  in  the  church- 
yard is  John  Wesley’s  great  philanthropic  declaration: 

“I  LOOK  UPON  ALL  THE  WOKLD  AS  MY  PARISH.” 

And  under  this,  on  the  sloping  line  at  the  bottom,  is  graven  Charles 
Wesley’s  exultant  exclamation: 

“God  bhries  his  Workmen,  but  carries  on  his  Work.” 

All  the  letters  are  what  is  technically  termed  “imperishable,”  being 
deeply  sunk  in  the  marble  and  filled  up  with  lead,  so  that  they  will  not 
need  renewal. 

The  monument  is  situate  midway  between  “Poets’  Comer,”  in  the 
southern  transept,  and  the  nave  of  the  Abbey,  being  near  to  the  smaller 
monument  of  Dr.  Isaac  Watts,  and  in  close  neighborhood  to  memorials 
of  men  of  genius  and  theological  learning;  so  that  the  position  and 
associations  of  the  monument  are  highly  satisfactory.  In  all  this  the 
Very  Reverend  the  Dean,  by  whose  permission  the  monument  to  the 
two  Wesleys  has  been  admitted  into  Westminster  Abbey,  deserves  grate- 
ful mention.  Nor  should  we  forget  the  lively  interest  taken  in  the 
preparation  of  it  by  the  late  Lady  Augusta  Stanley.  From  the  begin- 
ning, and  during  its  progress  under  the  hand  of  the  sculptor,  she  gave 
the  monument  her  wakeful  attention. 

The  deeply  affecting  services  accompanying  the  uncovering  of  the 
tablet  by  her  bereaved  husband  will,  I presume,  be  reported  in  your 
columns,  so  that  I need  not  here  make  further  reference  to  them.  Thank- 
ing all  who  have  co-operated  with  me  in  this  work,  I am,  dear  sir, 
yours  truly,  Frederick  James  Jobson. 


604 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


In  the  “Methodist  Eecorder”  of  London,  April  7,  1876,  ap- 
peared the  following  editorial,  from  the  pen  of  the  Eev.  W. 
Morley  Punshon,  LL.D. : 

THE  WESTMINSTER  ABBEY  MEMORIAL  TO  THE  WESLEYS. 

In  March,  1791,  leaving  a reformed  nation  and  a flourishing  Church 
as  his  monument,  John  Wesley  died.  In  March,  1876,  the  Dean  of 
Westminster  unveiled  a monument  of  marble  erected  to  him  and  his 
brother  Charles  in  the  south  aisle  of  Westminster  Abbey.  Thus  the 
ages  bring  about  the  vindication  of  the  good  and  true.  Time  is  the 
great  excavator  of  buried  reputations ; and  if  a man  be  sincere  of  aim, 
energetic  in  action,  and  pure  in  heart,  he  needs  only  to  learn  the  secret 
of  grandly  waiting,  and  his  recognition  and  enthronement  will  come. 
In  many  aspects  the  simple  ceremony  of  Thursday  week  was  significant 
and  memorable.  Some  hundreds  of  Methodists,  comprising  the  best- 
known  names  in  metropolitan  circuits,  ministerial  and  lay,  male  and 
female,  gathered  in  the  Chapter-house,  under  the  bright  beams  of  an 
approving  heaven.  Presently  there  stole  quietly  through  the  crowd  a 
slim,  spare  figure,  undersized — as  Wesley  was — with  a fine  classical 
countenance,  seeming  as  if  it  had  taken  a still  finer  mold  under  the 
chastening  of  recent  sorrow.  This  was  Dean  Stanley,  who  had  come, 
as  chief  dignitary  of  the  Abbey,  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  the  men 
wlio,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  three  generations,  are  confessed  to  have 
rendered  to  England,  and  to  the  Church  of  England,  service  of  no  com- 
mon kind.  In  well-chosen  words,  and  saying  neither  too  much  nor  too 
little.  Dr.  Jobson,  who  has  been  the  prime  mover  in  the  getting  up  of 
the  memorial,  requested  the  Dean  to  unveil  it,  making  apt  but  guarded 
allusion  to  Lady  Augusta  Stanley,  who  had  felt  great  interest  in  the 
progress  of  the  work,  but  who  “was  not,”  for  God  had  taken  her.  Tlie 
address  of  the  Dean,  who  spoke  with  evident  earnestness  and  repressed 
feeling,  and  moreover  as  one  who  saw  the  invisible,  was  worthy  of  his 
catholic  heart.  Very  frankly  did  he  acknowledge  the  national  obliga- 
tion to  the  brothers  Wesley — “the  poet  who  was  only  less  great  because 
the  preacher  overshadowed  him.”  Very  earnestly  did  he  ask  the  co-op- 
eration of  those  whom  he  addressed.  Nonconformists  though  they  were,  in 
what  he  felt  to  be  the  great  work  of  his  life — though  he  had  recently  been 
deprived  of  ‘ ‘ the  companionship  which  gave  it  impulse  and  power  ” — 
the  promotion  of  a truer  charity  among  the  followers  of  the  same  Saviour. 
Very  touchingly  did  he  refer  to  the  shadows  which  had  encompassed  him, 
but  through  which  the  other  world  had  been  brought  into  near  and  realiz- 


The  Memoeial  m Westminstee  Abbey.  605 


ing  vision ; and  when  he  stated  that  his  experience  and  his  resolve  might 
he  embodied  in  words  “ familiar  to  all  of  you,”  and  quoted  from  Charles 
Wesley’s  glorious  hymn  on  Wrestling  Jacob — 

“ My  company  before  is  gone, 

And  I am  left  alone  with  thee ; 

With  thee  all  night  I mean  to  stay, 

And  wrestle  till  the  break  of  day  ” — 

there  was  first  a hush,  in  homage  to  the  majesty  of  sorrow,  and  then  a 
murmur  of  sympathy  with  the  Christian  hope  and  purpose,  while  to 
many  an  eye  there  rushed  the  unbidden  tear.  The  Dean  then  proceeded  to 
the  south  aisle,  and  uncovered  the  tablet,  after  which  the  president  of  the 
Conference  briefly  expressed  his  pleasure — perhaps  the  first  Methodist 
preacher  who  has  spoken  publicly  in  Westminster  Abbey — and  then  the 
people  lifted  up  a voice,  and  that  a mighty  voice,  and  the  vaulted  aisles 
rang  with  the  strains  of  the  doxology.  We  rejoice  in  all  this  unfeignedly. 
Not  that  the  Wesleys  stand  higher  or  are  in  truer  renown  than  they 
were  a week  ago ; no  pomp  of  marble  is  needed  to  ennoble  them.  But 
in  this  age  of  fierce  attritions  and  ceaseless  controversies  it  is  pleasant  to 
step  aside  into  a quiet  resting-place  where  Christianity  is  honored  above 
sect  or  creed ; it  is  pleasant  to  sun  one’s  self  in  the  radiance  of  large 
catholicity,  shining  in  high  places ; and  it  will  be  profitable  for  those 
of  us  who  have  especial  trust  in  these  old  memories,  but  who  are  too 
busy  in  the  endeavor  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the  Wesleys  to  have  much 
leisure  to  weep  over  their  sepulchers,  to  see  to  it  that  we  go  to  it  not 
only  with  renewed  faith,  but  also  with  sturdier  determination  and  with 
larger  charity. 


WESLEY  IN  SAVANNAH,  AND  THE  WESLEY 
MONUMENTAL  CHUECH.  ' 


SUNDAY,  March  7,  1736.  Finding  there  was  not  yet  any  opportunity 
of  going  to  the  Indians,  I entered  upon  my  ministry  at  Savannah,  offi- 
ciating at  nine,  at  twelve,  and  in  the  afternoon.  On  the  week  days  I 
read  prayers  and  expounded  the  second  lesson,  beginning  at  five  in  the 
morning  and  seven  in  the  evening.  Every  Sunday  and  holiday  I admin- 
istered the  Lord’s  Supper. 

March  20.  I now  advised  the  serious  part  of  the  congregation  to  form 
themselves  into  a sort  of  little  society,  and  to  meet  once  or  twice  a week, 
in  order  to  instruct,  exhort,  and  reprove  one  another.  And  out  of  these 
I selected  a smaller  number  for  a more  intimate  union  with  each  other, 
in  order  to  which  I met  them  together  at  my  house  every  Sunday  in  the 
afternoon. 

May  10.  I began  visiting  my  parishioners  in  order,  from  house  to 
house ; for  which  I set  apart  the  time  when  they  could  not  work,  because 
of  the  heat,  namely,  from  twelve  to  three  in  the  afternoon. 

January  26,  1737.  Mr.  Ingham  set  out  for  England.  By  him  I wrote 
to  Dr.  Bray’s  associates,  who  had  sent  a parochial  library  to  Savannah. 
. . . Part  of  my  letter  was : — 

“Our  general  method  is  this:  A young  gentleman  who  eame  with  me 
teaches  between  thirty  and  forty  children  to  read,  write,  and  cast  ac- 
counts. Twice  a day  he  catechises  the  lowest  class.  In  the  evening  he 
instructs  the  larger  children.  On  Saturday  I eatechise  them  all ; as  also 
on  Sunday  before  the  evening  service;  and  in  the  church,  immediately 
after  the  second  lesson,  a select  number  of  them  having  repeated  the 
catechism  and  been  examined  in  some  part  of  it,  I endeavor  to  explain  at 
large,  and  to  enforce  that  part  both  on  them  and  the  congregation. 

“ After  the  evening  service,  as  many  of  my  parishioners  as  desire  it  meet 
at  my  house,  (as  they  do  also  on  Wednesday  evening,)  and  spend  about  an 
hour  in  prayer,  singing,  and  mutual  exhortation.  A small  number 
(mostly  those  who  desire  to  communicate  next  day)  meet  here  on  Satur- 
day evening,  and  a few  of  them  come  to  me  on  the  other  evenings,  and 
pass  half  an  hour  in  the  same  employment.” — Wesley's  Journal. 


Wesley  est  Savajstnah. 


609 


I CAKNOT  BUT  OBSEKVB  THAT  THESE  [tlie  above]  WERE  THE  FIRST 
RUDIMENTS  OP  THE  MeTHODIST  SOCIETIES.  BUT  WHO  COULD  THEN 
HAVE  FORMED  A CONJECTURE  WHERETO  THEY  WOULD  GROW? — Wcsley'S 
Short  History  of  the  People  called  Methodists. 

No  part  of  this  globe,  not  even  England,  is  more  indebted  to 
John  Wesley  than  America.  Though  only  a little  more  than  a 
century  has  passed  since  the  first  Methodist  preachers  came 
from  England,  the  Methodist  family  in  America  numbers  near- 
ly four  million  communicants.  And  who  will  say  how  many 
souls  saved  by  Methodist  preaching  have  gone  from  American 
Methodist  Churches  to  glory?  Or  who  will  say  how  many 
millions  more  have  gone  from  other  American  Churches  to 
swell  the  ranks  of  those  saved  through  grace,  whose  awakening 
and  conversion  may  be  traced  directly  or  indirectly  to  Mr. 
Wesley  and  his  preachers? 

And  yet  in  America  connectional  Methodism  has  consecrated 
no  monument  to  his  name,  no  great  statue  or  painting  by  some 
great  master  of  the  chisel  or  brush.  In  the  Capitol,  at  Wash- 
ington, Captain  Smith,  Miles  Stan  dish,  William  Penn,  Roger 
Williams,  and  Daniel  Boone,  with  Washington,  and  Adams,  and 
Jefferson,  and  Erankhn,  live  on  canvas  or  in  marble.  Even 
“ the  lone  Indian,”  though  it  be  but  to  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  his  fall  and  disgrace,  and  the  triumphs  of  his  pale-faced  foes, 
has  been  redeemed  from  the  general  oblivion  by  the  painter’s 
brush  or  sculptor’s  chisel.  I stood  in  the  Capitol,  at  Washing- 
ton, and  saw  the  colossal  statue  of  Ethan  Allen  just  as  it  was 
placed  in  position  in  Statuary  Hall.  It  was  Vermont’s  grateful 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  her  son,  the  hero  of  Ticonderoga.  A 
few  words,  nobly  and  bravely  spoken,  when  asked  by  what 
authority  he  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  fort,  entitled  Allen 
to  a place  among  the  sculptured  heroes  and  statesmen  of  the 
Capitol.  And  may  not  John  Wesley  have  some  memorial  in 
America,  as  in  Westminster  Abbey?  John  Wesley  walking 
barefooted  in  the  streets  of  Savannah,  or  preaching  the  gospel 
at  Tammacraw  to  Tomachichi,  the  Indian  chief,  or  looking  on 


610  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 

while  the  Elders  Spangenberg  and  l^itschmann  ordained  a Mo- 
ravian bishop,  is  fitting  study  for  the  wortlfiest  disciple  of 
Canova  or  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 

But  it  is  not  to  imitate  the  spirit  which  ostentatiously  builded 
and  garnished  the  sepulchers  of  the  prophets  that  we  purpose 
in  America  some  memorial  of  the  founder  of  Methodism.  Nor 
is  it  because  we  believe  he  needs  any  monumental  pile,  or  mar- 
ble shaft,  or  statue,  or  painting,  to  perpetuate  his  name.  His 
memory  lives  in  the  love  and  veneration  of  the  millions  who 
follow  him  as  he  followed  Christ.  His  name  is  the  most  treas 
nred  household  word  wherever  the  itinerant  minister,  with 
heart  of  love  and  tongue  of  fire,  has  preached  the  gospel  which 
he  preached.  His  monument  in  America  is  the  many  thousand 
Methodist  churches  in  the  United  States  and  the  Canadas,  the 
great  army  of  local  and  itinerant  preachers,  the  millions  of 
children  in  Methodist  Sabbath-schools,  the  many  universities 
and  colleges  which  American  Methodism  has  devoted  to  the 
cause  of  sanctified  learning,  and  the  many  consecrated  Method- 
ist printing-presses,  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  Amer- 
ica’s increasing  millions.  His  likeness  is  sculptured  or  pictured 
in  the  hearts  of  the  vast  multitude  of  believers  who,  in  the 
love-feast,  the  prayer-meeting,  and  the  class-meeting,  testify  to 
God’s  free  grace  and  pardoning  love,  and  praise  him  for  the 
gift  of  Wesley  to  man. 

But,  while  this  is  so,  the  Methodists  of  Savannah,  in  no  spirit 
of  hero  worship,  but  with  eye  single  to  the  honor  of  the  Great 
Head  of  the  Church  whose  servant  he  was,  desire  to  show  their 
appreciation  of  the  labors  of  Wesley  by  some  fitting  memorial 
there.  George  Washington,  first  in  war  and  peace,  is  first  in 
the  hearts  of  his  countrymen.  And  yet  a grateful  people  have 
erected  monuments  to  his  memory,  called  their  capital  by  his 
name,  and  perpetuated  his  likeness  on  canvas,  in  bronze,  and  in 
marble.  Roger  Wilhams,  the  great  Baptist  champion  of  soul- 
liberty,  has  been  placed  in  marble  in  Statuary  Hall,  side  by  side 
• with  Nathaniel  Greene,  the  compatriot  and  companion  in  arms 


Wesley  est  Savannah. 


611 


of  Washington.  In  Savannah,  too,  a monument  has  been 
erected  to  Greene,  and  another  to  Pulaski,  though  these  heroes 
live  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  In  like  manner,  though  he 
is  enshrined  in  their  affections.  Savannah  Methodists  have  be- 
gun a monument  to  Wesley.  That  monument,  however,  is  no 
granite  pile,  no  marble  column,  no  sculptured,  no  pictured, 
memorial.  But  it  is  what  is  infinitely  more  becoming — a no- 
ble Christian  temple,  in  which  his  doctrines  shall  be  preached, 
sinners  called  to  repentance  and  faith  in  Christ,  the  shouts  of 
new-born  souls  and  saints  made  perfect  in  love  be  heard,  and 
the  songs  of  Charles,  his  poet-brother,  be  sung. 

And  what  place  more  fitting  for  such  a memorial  to  Mr. 
Wesley  than  Savannah?  He  has  imperfectly  read  the  history 
of  Methodism  who  does  not  see  the  special  hand  of  God  in  con- 
ducting Wesley  to  Georgia.  The  ship  which  bore  him  there 
in  company  with  the  Moravians ; the  storm  which  tried  his 
faith  on  the  Atlantic ; the  intimacy  with  the  Moravians,  Spau- 
genhurg  and  Hitschmann,  and  with  the  Salzburghers,  Bolzius 
and  Gronau  ; the  trials,  persecutions,  vigils,  fastings,  and  perils 
in  the  solitudes  of  the  wilderness,  were  necessary  to  form  and 
develop  the  future  revivalist  and  reformer  for  the  great  work 
to  which  God  had  called  him.  However  viewed,  they  were  as 
necessary  to  him  as  the  residence  in  Midian  to  Moses,  the  so- 
journ by  the  brook  Cherith  to  Elijah,  or  the  life  among  the 
captives  by  the  river  Chebar  to  Ezekiel.  What  Abel  Stevens 
has  written  of  Wesley’s  life  on  the  deep  in  the  ship  with  the 
pious  families  of  Hermhut,  may  be  affirmed  of  his  whole  life 
in  Georgia  : “ It  was  practical  Methodism  still  struggling  in  its 
forming  process ; it  was  Ep worth  rectory  and  Susanna  Wes- 
ley’s discipline  afloat  on  the  Atlantic.” 

The  difference  between  Mr.  Wesley’s  spiritual  life  in  Savan- 
nah and  his  subsequent  life,  for  which  the  former  prepared  him, 
was  indeed  great.  But  it  was  no  greater  than  the  difference 
between  Moses  before  and  after  his  experience  at  the  burning 
bush  ; between  Isaiah  before  and  after  his  lips  were  touched  by 


612 


The  Wesley  Memorial  VoLUiiE. 


one  of  the  seraphim  with  a hve  coal  from  the  altar,  or  Peter 
before  and  after  Pentecost.  It  was  no  greater  than  the  differ- 
ence between  a babe  in  Christ,  or  a young  man  who  has  over- 
come the  wicked  one,  and  a father  in  Israel  who  has  known 
Him  that  is  from  the  beginning.  And  it  was  no  greater  than 
the  difference  between  St.  John  before  and  after  he  received 
the  perfect  love  which  casteth  out  fear.  The  difference  be- 

r tween  John  Wesley  in  the  storm-tossed  ship  on  the  Atlantic 
and  in  his  struggles  after  the  higher  life  in  Savannah,  and  John 
Wesley  after  his  communion  with  Peter  Bohler  and  visit  to 
Herrnhut,  is  the  difference  between  John  Wesley  justified  by 
grace  through  faith  and  John  Wesley  sanctified  wholly  by  the 
Spirit ; between  the  contrasted  man  in  his  sermons  on  “ Justifi- 
cation by  Faith  ” and  in  his  sermons  on  “ Christian  Perfection ; ” 
between  an  inexperienced  and  an  experienced  Christian,  in 
whom  tribulation  hath  wrought  patience,  and  patience  expe- 
rience, and  experience  the  hope  that  maketh  not  ashamed.  Mr. 
Wesley’s  self -condemnatory  expressions  at  this  period  of  his 
life  no  more  make  against  the  soundness  of  this  opinion  than 
the  Hke  condemnatory  things  which  many  Old  and  Hew  Testa- 
ment saints  recorded  against  themselves  prove  them  to  have 
had,  at  the  time  they  uttered  them,  no  real  experience  in  the 
things  of  God. 

The  reader  of  Methodist  history,  who  has  studied  Wesley’s 
life  and  work  in  Savannah,  must  see  the  developing  process  of 
Methodism  there.  Ho  part  of  his  life  in  Savannah  was  insig- 
nificant. In  Delamotte’s  school  the  children  who  wore  shoes 
and  stockings  ridiculed  those  who  had  none.  This  produced 
discord,  which  Delamotte  sought  in  vain  to  suppress.  Ex- 
changing schools  with  his  friend,  Wesley  walked  barefooted  in 
the  streets,  and  went  barefooted  in  the  school-room.  The  poor 
were  encouraged ; they  who  had  shoes  and  stockings,  imitating 
the  example  of  their  minister  and  teacher,  went  barefooted 
also ; and  so  peace  was  restored  to  the  school.  This  has  been 
contemptuously  called  asceticism.  It  may  be ; but  it  was  such 


Wesley  est  Savannah. 


613 


asceticism  as  revealed  the  character  of  the  future  reformer, 
who,  hke  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  was  willing  to  be 
all  things  to  all  men  that  he  might  save  the  more.  By  seK- 
denial  in  the  wilderness,  by  waging  war  against  all  manner  of 
sin,  by  systematic  methods  of  labor,  by  constant  ministrations 
to  the  poor,  by  visiting  from  house  to  house,  by  forming  seri- 
ous persons  into  classes,  some  to  meet  once  and  some  to  meet 
twice  a week,  in  order  “to  instruct,  exhort,  and  reprove  one 
another,”  (the  beginning  of  the  class-meetings  and  band-meet- 
ings which  Mr,  W esley  afterward  introduced  into  his  Societies,) 
and  by  gathering  together  the  children  of  the  parish  at  the 
house  of  God,  on  every  Sunday  afternoon,  to  learn  the  cate- 
chism and  receive  other  religious  instruction — a work  which 
had  in  it  the  very  best  elements  of  the  Sabbath-school — Mr. 
Wesley  in  Savannah  was  developing  the  system  wlaich  became 
peculiar  to  Methodism,  and  was  preparing  himself  to  be  the 
greatest  reformer  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  hfor  was  this 
all.  In  Savannah  he  was  not  only  drawn  by  his  intimacy  with 
the  Moravians  to  seek  after  the  higher  life,  but  there,  too,  his 
High-Church  notions  received  “ a staggering  blow,”  when,  while 
witnessing  the  simplicity  and  solemnity  with  which  the  Mora- 
vian elders  elected  and  ordained  a bishop,  he  was  carried  back, 
as  he  records  in  his  journal,  to  the  days  in  which  “ form  and 
state  were  not ; but  Paul  the  tent-maker,  and  Peter  the  fisher- 
man, presided ; yet  with  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
of  power.” 

Tbft  Spbbat.h-Rehnni  in  Savannah  deserves  to  be  treated  more 
fully.  Wesley’s  method  of  Sabbath-school  instruction  while 
there  was  not  simply  the  old  custom  of  catechising  the  young 
on  Sunday  afternoons.  And  yet  even  this,  when  Wesley  ap- 
peared, had  been  abandoned  by  the  parochial  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England.  The  good  Bishop  Wilson,  in  the  Isle  of 
Man,  alone  kept  it  up ; elsewhere  it  had  fallen  into  disuse. 
Wesley  did  a great  deal  more  than  revive  the  custom.  His 
Sunday  instruction  of  the  children  in  the  parish  of  Christ 


614 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


Cliurch,  Savannah,  as  has  been  said,  had  in  it  all  the  best  ele- 
ments of  the  Sunday-school.  Raikes’  teaching  was  secular ; it 
carried  the  week-day  school  into  the  Sabbath,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  poorer  urchins  whose  parents  were  not  able  to  send  them 
to  the  week-day  schools.  The  elements  of  reading,  writing, 
and  even  arithmetic,  were  taught  by  paid  teachers ; Bible  or 
spiritual  teaching  was  for  a long  time  almost,  if  not  wholly, 
neglected.  The  primary,  if  not  the  sole,  object  of  "Wesley’s 
Sabbath-school  instruction  was  to  bring  the  children  to  Christ ; 
and  with  what  result  the  following  extract  from  his  journal 
will  show : 

“May  29,  [1737.]  Being  Whitsunday,  four  of  our  scholars, 
after  having  been  instructed  daily  for  several  weeks,  were,  at 
their  earnest  and  repeated  desire,  admitted  to  the  Lord’s  table. 
I trust  their  zeal  has  stirred  up  many  to  remember  their  Cre- 
ator in  the  days  of  their  youth,  and  to  redeem  the  time,  even 
in  the  midst  of  an  evil  and  adulterous  generation. 

“ Indeed,  about  this  time  we  observed  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
move  upon  the  minds  of  many  of  the  children.  They  began 
more  carefully  to  attend  to  the  things  that  were  spoken,  both 
at  home  and  at  church,  and  a remarkable  seriousness  appeared 
in  their  whole  behavior  and  conversation.  Who  knows  but 
some  of  them  may  ‘ grow  up  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of 
the  fullness  of  Christ  ? ’ ” 

“ Here,”  says  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thaddeus  Mason  Harris,  in  his 
“ Biographical  Memorials  of  General  Oglethorpe,”  “ is  a proto- 
type of  the  modern  Sunday-schools.”  “This,”  says  William 
Bacon  Stevens,  the  learned  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  his  “ History  of  Georgia,”  “ was  a regular  part  of  his 
[Wesley’s]  Sunday  duties ; and  it  seems  that  John  Wesley,  in 
the  parish  of  Christ  Church,  Savannah,  had  established  a Sun- 
day-school nearly  fifty  years  before  Robert  Raikes  originated 
his  noble  scheme  of  Sunday  instruction  in  Gloucester.” 

But,  whatever  the  scheme  of  Robert  Raikes,  even  that  was 
suggested  to  him  by  Sophia  Cooke,  a Methodist  young  woman, 


Wesley  in  Savannah. 


615 


who  subsequently  became  the  wife  of  Samuel  Bradburn,  one  of 
Wesley’s  best  and  ablest  lay-preachers.  And  Hannah  Ball, 
another  Methodist  woman,  fourteen  years  before  Baikes  began 
his  Sunday-school  in  Gloucester,  had  a Sabbath-school  at  High 
Wycombe.  It  is  claimed,  also,  that  Sabbath  - schools  were 
established  by  Lindsay,  in  1765 ; by  James  Hey,  in  1775 ; by 
David  Simpson,  in  1778 ; and  by  Mrs.  Catherine  Boey,  of 
Huxley  Abbey,  “long  before  Baikes  was  born.”  Baikes  was 
bom  in  1761. 

But,  no  matter  to  whom  the  credit  of  the  Sabbath-school  is 
due,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Wesley,  aided  by  Delamotte  and 
Ingham,  in  Savannah,  1736-37,  had  a Sunday-school  pre- 
eminently worthy  of  the  name.  Ho  minister  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  since  the  apostolic  times,  more  fully  understood  the 
meaning  and  the  spirit  of  the  Master’s  command  to  Peter, 
“ Feed  mt  lambs,”  or  more  implicitly  obeyed  it.  Ho  preacher 
more  keenly  than  John  Wesley  felt  its  responsibility ; a respon- 
sibility which  he  never  shifted.  Ho  Sabbath-school  teacher,  no 
superintendent  of  a Sunday-school,  no  instructor  of  a Bible- 
class,  could  have  done  for  him  the  work  expressed  and  implied 
in  the  command,  “Feed  my  lambs.”  Indeed,  it  may  well  be 
questioned  whether  a departure  from  Wesley’s  methods  has  not 
worked-  much  injury ; whether  pastors  of  Churches,  in  these 
more  advanced  days  of  Sabbath-schools,  have  not  made  them  a 
substitute  for  the  work  which  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church 
especially  committed  to  their  hands. 

A truer  and  more  faithful  shepherd  of  the  lambs  of  the 
flock  the  Church  of  Christ  has  never  had  than  John  Wesley. 
Ho  one  more  deeply  drank  into  the  spirit  of  Him  who  said, 
“ Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me.”  They  ever  had 
his  tenderest  regards  ; they  ever  felt  for  him  the  most  devoted 
love  as  well  as  the  profoundest  reverence.  Bevering  him, 
they  did  not  fear  him ; they  flocked  around  him  wherever  he 
went ; they  often  blocked  up  the  entrance  to  the  church  that 
they  might  receive  his  blessing ; they  hung  upon  the  skirts  of 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  VoLrorE. 


his  coat,  and  only  let  go  their  hold  when  he  entered  into  the 
place  of  preaching  or  ascended  the  pnlpit.  Think  of  the 
children  who  sat  at  the  feet  of  John  "Wesley  and  received  his 
instruction ! It  was  a great  privilege  to  the  young  who  sat  at 
the  feet  of  John  Milton,  and  read  Homer  on  week-days  and 
the  Greek  Testament  on  Sundays,  having  England’s  greatest 
epic  poet  for  their  instructor.  It  was  a greater  privilege  to 
the  children  of  Savannah  to  be  taught  by  John  Wesley  how  to 
love  and  serve  their  Creator,  and  Jesus  Christ,  who,  when  on 
earth,  took  the  little  ones  into  his  loving  arms  and  blessed  them. 
The  touch  of  Wesley’s  hand  when  placed  on  their  heads  in  bless- 
ing was  never  forgotten  ; Robert  Southey,  on  whose  head,  while 
a mere  child  in  Bristol,  the  hand  of  the  apostolic  man  was  placed, 
remembered  that  touch,  and  felt  its  benediction  down  to  his 
latest  day. 

And  who  was  a greater  friend  to  the  general  Sabbath-school 
movement  than  John  Wesley?  From  no  one  did  Robert 
Raikes  receive  greater  encouragement  than  from  the  great 
Methodist  reformer.  With  pen  and  voice  Mr.  Wesley  elo- 
quently supported  the  movement.  He  was  the  first  to  see 
that  God  had  in  the  Sabbath-school  “ a deeper  end  therein  than 
men  are  aware  of,”  and  to  speak  of  them  as  “ nurseries  for 
Christians.”  To  Richard  Rodda,  in  1Y87,  Wesley  wrote:  “It 
seems  these  [Sabbath-schools]  will  be  one  great  means  of  reviv- 
ing religion  throughout  the  nation;”  to  Duncan  Wright,  in 
1YY8  : “I  verily  think  these  Sunday-schools  are  one  of  the 
noblest  specimens  of  charity  which  have  been  set  on  foot  in 
England  since  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror ; ” to  Charles 
Atmore,  in  1790 : “ I am  glad  you  have  set  up  Sunday-schools 
in  Newcastle.  It  is  one  of  the  noblest  institutions  which  have 
been  seen  in  Europe  for  some  centuries,  and  will  increase  more 
and  more,  provided  the  teachers  and  inspectors  do  their  duty. 
Hothing  can  prevent  the  increase  of  this  blessed  work  but  the 
neglect  of  the  instruments.  Therefore,  be  sure  to  watch  over 
these  with  great  care,  that  they  may  not  grow  weary  in  well- 


Wesley  nsr  Savannah, 


617 


doing.” — These  men  were  "Wesley’s  lay  preachers ; these  letters 
show  the  deep  interest  Wesley  took  in  the  religious  instruction 
of  childi-en  and  in  the  Sabbath-school  revival. 

If  these  things  are  true,  what  more  appropriate  than  the 
Wesley  Monumental  Chtiech  in  Savannah,  and  especially  the 
Memorial  Sabbath-School  Room  and  Llbeart  there,  which 
are  intended  to  commemorate,  and  preserve  to  Methodism, 
where  it  rightfully  belongs,  the  fact  that  Mr.  Wesley  had  a 
Sabbath-school  in  Savannah  forty-three  years  before  Robert 
Raikes  had  a Sunday-school  in  Gloucester  ? Sophia  Cooke,  who 
suggested  to  Raikes  his  Sabbath-school  idea,  and  Hannah  Ball, 
of  High  Wycombe,  who  had  a Sabbath-school  fourteen  years 
before,  are  surely  entitled,  above  Robert  Raikes,  to  the  claim  of 
priority  in  the  Sabbath-school  movement.  These  noble  Christian 
ATomen  were  Methodists ; hence,  even  in  that  view,  to  Method- 
ism, more  than  to  Robert  Raikes,  belongs  the  credit  of  the 
Sabbath-school  revival.  From  the  wreath  which  encircles  the 
honored  brow  of  Robert  Raikes  we  would  not  pluck  a single 
flower.  But  of  this  revival — for  it  was  only  a revival,  Sabbath- 
school  instruction  having  been  known  to  the  Church  from 
apostolic  times — truth  compels  us  to  give  the  honor  where  the 
facts  of  history  have  placed  it. 

But,  to  return,  what  if  Mr.  Wesley,  after  his  departure  from 
Georgia,  did  say  that  he  who  went  to  America  to  convert  In- 
dians was  not  himself  converted?  "When  St.  Paul,  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  called  himself  “ less  than  the  least  of 
all  saints ; ” or,  when  writing  to  Timothy,  he  called  himself 
the  chief  of  sinners,”  was  St.  Paul  an  unconverted  man  ? 
The  ^rsl  he  wrote  of  himself  eighteen  years  after  he  was 
caught  up  into  paradise  ; the  second  he  wrote  in  his  last  prison, 
after  his  last  battle  was  fought  and  won,  the  race  ended,  and 
the  goal  gained.  And  it  was  eighteen  years  after  his  vision 
of  paradise  that  the  great  apostle  wrote  to  the  Philippians  that 
he  had  neither  already  attained  nor  was  he  already  perfect. 
Heither  did  Mr.  Wesley — so  exalted  was  his  idea  of  Christian 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


perfection — ever  admit — up  to  1167 — that  he  had  attained  it, 
as  the  folloM'ing  from  Mr.  Wesley  to  Dr.  Dodd  will  show : 

“ ‘ Rusticulus^  or  Dr.  Dodd,  says,  ‘ A Methodist,  according 
to  Mr.  W esley,  is  one  who  is  perfect  and  sinneth  not  in  thought, 
wmrd,  or  deed.’ 

“ Sir,  have  me  excused.  This  is  not  according  to  Mr.  Wes- 
ley. I have  told  all  the  world,  I am,  not  perfect ; and  yet, 
you  allow  me  to  be  a Methodist.  I tell  you  flat,  I have  not 
attained  the  character  I draw.  Will  you  pin  it  upon  me  in 
spite  of  my  teeth  ? ” 

“ The  above,”  says  Mr.  Tyerman,  “ is  an  important  letter, 
were  it  for  nothing  else  than  showing  that  Wesley  preached  a 
doctrine  he  himself  did  not  experience.  For  above  forty  years 
he  had  taught  the  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection ; but  he 
here  flatly  declares  that  as  yet  [1767]  he  had  not  attained  it: 
he  taught  it,  not  because  he  felt  it,  hut  because  he  believed  the 
Bible  taught  it.” 

The  truth  seems  to  be,,  the  closer  Wesley  walked  with  God, 
the  greater  to  him  seemed  the  distance  between  absolute  and 
relative  perfection.  Inasmuch  as  the  heavens  are  unclean  in 
the  sight  of  the  absolutely  and  inflnitely  Holy  One,  and  cheru- 
bim and  seraphim  veil  their  faces  in  his  presence,  the  holiest 
here,  comparing  their  derived  and  relative  holiness  with  the 
absolute  and  inflnite  holiness  of  God,  often  write  themselves 
unholy  and  unclean.  The  entrance  of  God’s  word,  which 
giveth  light,  reveals  to  the  spiritual  sense,  with  every  increase 
of  light,  imperfections  it  never  saw  before.  When,  then, 
John  Wesley  sanctified  compared  himself  with  John  Wesley 
justified,  he  wrote  that  till  then  he  had  never  been  converted ; 
and  when  John  Wesley,  wholly  sanctified,  compared  himself 
with  the  possibilities  of  that  Spirit  who  reveals  the  deep  things 
of  God,  he  shrank  from  confessing  that  he  had  attained  per- 
fect sanctification.  Hence,  if  John  Wesley  was  not  converted 
before  he  saw  Peter  Bohler,  John  Wesley  lived  and  died  never 
having  received  the  blessing  of  perfect  love.  For,  while  he 


TVesley  in  Savannah. 


619 


denied,  as  above,  aU  claim  to  tbe  latter,  bis  denial  of  the 
former  was  in  later  years  qualified  by  tbe  added  note — “ But  I 
am  not  sure  of  this.”  IS^ot  sure  of  wbat  ? He  was  not  sure 
that  be  was  right  when  he  denied  his  conversion.  “Neither 
are  we,”  says  Mr.  Tyerman.  Indeed,  Mr.  Tyerman  adds, 
“ AVesley’s  assertion  was  too  strong ; in  after  life  he  felt  it  so  ; 
and  those  who  quote  it  ought,  in  all  fairness,  to  add  what  he 
himself  appended.”  Hence,  while  he  had  not  the  confidence 
and  joy  of  an  assured  son,  Mr.  Tyerman  believes  that  “ Wesley 
in  Georgia  was  accepted  of  God  through  Christ.”  Mr.  Over- 
ton,  in  “ The  English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,” 
writes:  “It  is  somewhat  curious  that  he  [Wesley]  places  the 
commencement  of  the  revival  at  a date  nine  years  earlier  than 
that  of  his  own  conversion ; but  it  must  be  remembered,  that 
in  his  later  years  he  took  a somewhat  different  view  of  the 
latter  event  from  that  which  he  held  in  his  hot  youth.”  And 
Dr.  Stoughton,  in  “Beligion  in  England  under  Queen  Aime 
and  the  Georges,”  says : “ But  though  the  change  at  this  mo- 
ment [in  Aldersgate-street,  May  24,  1738]  is  denominated  a 
conversion,  few  will  believe  that  Wesley  was  altogether  uncon- 
verted before.”  * 

When,  in  after  years,  Mr.  Wesley  reviewed  his  life  in 
Georgia,  he  declared  that  even  then  he  had  the  faith  of  a serv- 
ant of  God,  though  not  that  of  a son.  But  what  did  he  mean 
by  the  faith  of  a son — that  which,  while  in  Savannah,  his  soul 
was  craving?  Let  Mr.  Wesley  himself  answer.  “ It  was,”  he 
says,  “ a faith  that  would  enable  him  to  say,  with  St.  Paul,  ‘ I 
am  crucified  with  Christ : nevertheless  I live ; yet  not  I,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me : and  the  life  which  I now  live  in  the  fiesh 

* The  view  which  I am  presenting  does  not  affect  “ Methodist  terminology.” 
It  simply  vindicates  Mr.  Wesley  against  himself.  It  is  merely  an  opinion  as  to 
wAm  Mr.  Wesley  was  converted,  and  when  he  was  wholly  sanctified.  I believe  he 
was  a converted  man  while  he  was  in  Savannah.  And  I equally  believe  that  he 
was  subsequently  wholly  sanctified,  though  he  wrote  that  he  was  not.  I am 
humbly  persuaded  that,  by  thus  vindicating  Mr.  Wesley  against  himself,  I am 
more  effectually  vindicating  both  Wesley’s  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  and 
his  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection. 

39 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


I live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave 
himself  for  me.’  ” He  wanted,  he  adds,  that  faith  by  which 
whosoever  hath  it  is  “ freed  from  sin,”  and  by  which  the  whole 
“body  of  sin  is  destroyed.”  How  in  what  does  such  a state 
differ  from  Wesley’s  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection?  The 
truth  is,  Wesley,  not  satisfied  with  himself,  was  at  this  time 
longing  for  something,  as  panting  hart  for  cooling  water-brook. 
That  something  was  this  blessing  of  perfect  love ; and  that 
something,  as  we  believe,  he  found  on  that  memorable  night 
in  Aldersgate-street.  If,  on  that  night,  he  received  his  first 
blessing — ^the  peace  of  justification — when  did  he  receive  the 
second — the  perfect  love  which  casteth  out  fear  ? But,  how- 
ever this  may  be,  no  one,  perhaps,  will  question  what  George 
Smith,  the  historian  of  British  Methodism,  tells  us,  when  he 
writes  : “ In  the  general  sense  in  which  the  word  ‘ converted  ’ 
is  often  used,  as  implying  a turning  from  sin  to  God,  it  could 
not  be  said  that  Wesley  had  never  up  to  this  time  been  con- 
verted.” And  to  this  we  add.  If  a holy  and  blameless  life  be 
any  evidence  of  conversion,  Mr.  Wesley’s  life  in  Savannah 
furnishes  such  evidence. 

Wesley  in  Savannah  was,  indeed,  a ritualist,  but  he  was  no 
bigot.  An  unsectarian  spirit  Wesley  ever  breathed.  He  was 
no  bigot,  no  sectarian,  who  recognized  Christ  in  the  humble 
Moravians  of  Savannah  and  the  equally  humble  Salzburghers 
of  Ebenezer,  and,  sitting  at  their  feet  as  a little  child,  looked  up 
to  them  as  his  spiritual  guides.  He  was  ascetic,  and,  for  the 
times,  rigid  and  severe  in  discipline — too  much  so  for  his  own 
peace,  for  out  of  it  came  all  his  troubles  in  Savannah.  But 
then,  disciphne  in  the  Church  of  England  was  at  that  time  so 
lax  as  to  be  wholly  abandoned.  It  is  no  surprising  thing, 
therefore,  that  he  who  was  sent  to  reform  the  Church  sought 
to  restore  its  discipline  by  laying  the  ax  “ unto  the  root  of  the 
tree.”  Tonng  and  susceptible,  he  became  entangled  in  an 
affair  of  love.  But,  acting  on  the  advice  of  his  spiritual 
guides,  he  tore  this  idol  from  his  heart,  because  he  was  per- 


"Wesley  nsr  SAVAinsrAH. 


621 


Buaded  that  it  would  hinder  the  work  to  which  his  life  was  con- 
secrated. Indiscreet,  perhaps,  he  was ; and  by  many,  perhaps, 
he  will  ever  be  so  regarded.  But  not  a taint  of  dishonor  at- 
taches to  his  name.  If  Wesley’s  austere  morality  and  pure 
religious  life  had  not  been  a rebuke  and  offense  to  the  worldly 
and  unprincipled  man  who  was  both  the  chief  magistrate  of 
Savannah  and  uncle  to  the  young  lady,  no  charge  for  refusing 
the  communion  to  Sophia  Hopkey  after  she  became  Mrs.  Will- 
iamson would  ever  have  been  brought  against  John  Wesley. 
In  keeping,  too,  with  this  charge,  was  the  charge  that  he  had 
broken  up  a State-dance  by  a prayer-meeting  which  he  was  then 
conducting  in  another  room.  That  John  Wesley,  when  her  con- 
duct became  obnoxious  to  the  rules  and  discipline  of  the  Church, 
refused  the  communion  to  Mrs.  Williamson,  proves,  if  he 
ever  had  regarded  her  with  affection,  that  he  was  no  respecter 
of  persons.  In  a letter  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  written  De- 
cember 22,  1737,  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Garden,  the  bishop’s 
commissary  in  Charleston,  Mr.  Garden  writes : “ Tliis  sudden 
event  [Wesley’s  leaving  Georgia]  indeed  surprised  me,  for  no 
one  could  be  more  approved,  better  liked,  or  better  reported 
of  by  all  the  people  of  Georgia  than  this  very  gentleman  was, 
till  lately  he  presumed  to  expel  the  chief  magistrate’s  niece 
from  the  Holy  Communion,  which  has  brought  down  such  a 
storm  of  resentment  upon  him  as  I wish  he  may  be  well  able 
to  weather.” — Such  was  the  view  taken  of  this  affair  by  the 
Bishop  of  London’s  representative  in  Charleston.  It  was  the 
resentment  of  pride  against  the  faithfulness  of  a zealous  and 
devoted  parish  priest. 

But  do  we  claim  for  Mr.  Wesley  that  he  was  without  fault, 
or  free  from  mistakes  ? By  no  means.  For  we  remember  that 
John  Wesley  was,  after  all,  a man,  and  not  an  angel;  not  a 
perfect  man,  but  a man  “ compassed  with  infirmity  ; ” yet  still, 
a man  approaching  as  nearly,  through  grace,  to  the  stature  of 
the  fullness  of  Christ — Fletcher  of  Madeley,  perhaps,  alone  ex- 
cepted— as  any  other  man  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Ho  true 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


follower  of  Joh.ii  Wesley  has  ever  made  him  an  angel,  hfo 
enemy  has  more  faithfully  exposed  his  mistakes  than  Luke 
Tyerman,  his  devoted  follower.  And  yet  Mr.  Tyerman  says 
that  John  Wesley  was  “as  perfect  as  we  ever  expect  men  to 
be  on  this  side  heaven.”  If  Wesley’s  character  has  been  made 
to  appear  more  than  human  it  has  been  owing  to  the  unfounded 
attacks  of  his  open  enemies,  or  to  the  misguided  representa- 
tions of  lukewarm  friends.  For  nothing  so  exalts  real  virtue 
as  when  the  merest  trifles  are  the  only  things  that  can  be 
brought  against  its  possessor.  The  labored  and  over-zealous 
efforts  of  those  who  have  exhausted  their  ingenuity  to  prove 
that  John  Wesley  was  not  faultless  have  done  more  to  give  a 
highly-wrought  coloring  to  his  character  than  all  the  laudations 
which  he  has  received  from  the  most  partial  of  his  followers. 
For  the  impartial  judgment  of  history  must  be,  that  he  must 
have  been  far  above  his  fellows  against  whose  long  life  of  over 
fourscore  years  of  active  public  labor  naught  can  be  alleged 
except  the  most  venial  indiscretions  of  youth. 

Wesley  made  mistakes ; he  erred  in  judgment;  he  was  too 
trustful,  too  charitably  credulous,  and  was,  therefore,  some- 
times deceived.  But,  notwithstanding  the  mistakes  of  his  long 
and  eventful  life,  aU  future  candid  historians  must  confirm  the 
judgment  of  Mr.  Overton,  that  one  all-absorbing,  all-controlling 
principle  was  the  rule  of  Wesley’s  life:  “The  love  of  Gron, 
AJisTD  THE  love  OF  MAN  FOK  God’s  SAKE.”  In  harmony  with 
this  we  give  the  judgments  which  follow,  not  one  of  which,  as 
well  as  that  just  quoted  from  Mr.  Overton,  was  pronounced  by 
a follower  of  John  Wesley  : — 

Wesley  thought  of  religion  only. — Dr.  Scvtnuel  Johnson,. 

Wesley  had  a genius  for  godliness. — Matthew  Arnold. 

It  was  impossible  to  observe  him  without  wishing  fervently,  May  my 
last  end  be  like  his! — Alexander  Knox. 

The  purest,  noblest,  most  saintly  clergyman  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
whose  whole  life  was  passed  in  the  sincere  and  loyal  effort  to  do  good. — 
Mr.  Curteis : Bampton  Lectures. 


Wesley  in  Savannah. 


623 


I do  not  say  he  was  without  fault,  or  above  mistakes,  but  they  were 
lost  in  the  multitude  of  his  excellences  and  virtues. — Woodf all's  Diary, 
July,  1791. 

We  are  not  blind  to  his  faults,  but  even  these  will  be  found  to  have 
sprung  from  the  sincerity,  openness,  and  native  simplicity  of  his  charac- 
ter.— Dr.  DoUbin. 

Whatever  ignorance  of  his  real  character,  the  fatuity  of  prejudice,  or 
the  insolence  of  pride  may  have  suggested,  the  day  is  coming  when  the 
great  and  adorable  Master  will  condemn  every  tongue  that  hath  risen 
up  in  judgment  against  him,  and  say  in  tlie  presence  of  men  and  angels, 
“Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
Lord.” — Dr.  Haweis,  Chaplain  to  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon. 

Mr.  Wesley,  may  I be  found  at  your  feet  in  heaven! — Dr.  Lowth,  Bish- 
op of  London. 

Wesley  will  be  so  near  the  throne,  and  we  shall  be  at  such  a distance, 
that  I shall  hardly  get  a sight  of  him. — George  Whitefield. 

But  let  US  return  to  Mr.  Wesley’s  earlier  spiritual  life.  In 
his  journal  we  find  this  remarkable  entry : 

Saturday,  March  14,  1738. — I found  my  brother  at  Oxford  recovering 
from  his  pleurisy ; and  with  him  Peter  Bohler,  by  whom  (in  the  hand 
of  the  great  God)  I was,  on  Sunday,  the  5th,  clearly  convinced  of  unbe- 
lief, of  the  want  of  that  faith  whereby  alone  we  are  saved. 

How  if  these  words  stood  by  themselves,  they  might  be  used 
to  throw  discredit  upon  what  we  have  been  saying.  But  they 
do  not  stand  by  themselves.  They  are  fully  explained  and 
quahfied  by  Mr.  Wesley’s  own  added  note,  “With  the  full 
Christian  salvation.” 

“ ‘ The  full  Christian  salvation  ’ was  Pekfect  Love,  or 
Chkistian  Pekfection.  Whenever  Wesley  applied  the  tests 
of  conversion  to  his  own  personal  experience,  he  ever  de- 
manded fruits  in  himself  which  he  always  ascribed  to  others 
whom  he  acknowledged  to  be  perfect  in  love.” 

From  the  Preface  to  “Hymns  and  Sacred  Poems,”  1Y39, 
we  may  learn  what  Wesley  once  thought  a child  of  God  must 
be : “ 1.  He  is  freed  from  self-will,  desiring  nothing — no,  not 
for  one  moment.  2.  From  evil  thoughts,  so  that  they  cannot 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


enter  into  him — no,  not  for  one  moment.  Aforetime  when  an 
evil  thought  came  in,  he  looked  up,  and  it  vanished  away. 
But  now  it  does  not  come  in ; there  being  no  room  for  this  in 
a soul  which  is  full  of  God.  3.  From  wanderings  in  prayer ; 
they  have  no  thought  of  any  thing  past,  or  absent,  or  to  come, 
but  of  God  alone.” — But  Mr.  Wesley  afterward  said  that  these 
words  were  too  strong;  in  a subsequent  preface  he  qualified 
and  corrected  them. 

In  his  later  years,  also,  Mr.  Wesley  said  that  he  had  been 
too  strong  in  what  he  had  held  about  the  evidence  of  con- 
version. In  the  Minutes  of  1Y70  appears  the  following: 
“ But  how  are  we  sure  that  the  person  in  question  never  did 
fear  God,  and  work  righteousness  ? His  own  saying  so 
[italics  ours]  is  not  proof ; for  we  know  how  all  that  are  con- 
vinced of  sin  undervalue  themselves  in  every  respectP  And,  in 
extreme  old  age,  he  writes,  “ When,  fifty  years  ago,  my  brother 
Charles  and  I,  in  the  simplicity  of  our  hearts,  taught  the  peo- 
ple that  unless  they  knew  their  sins  were  forgiven  they  were 
under  the  wrath  and  curse  of  God,  I marvel  they  did  not  stone 
us.  The  Methodists,  I hope,  know  better  now.  We  preach 
assurance,  as  we  always  did,  as  a common  privilege  of  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  but  we  do  not  enforce  it  under  pain  of  damna- 
tion denounced  on  all  who  enjoy  it  not.” 

In  Aldersgate-street,  on  the  evening  of  May  24,  1738,  it  is 
claimed  that  John  Wesley  was  converted.  His  “heart  was 
strangely  warmed”  while  one  “was  describing  the  change 
which  God  works  in  the  heart  through  faith  in  Christ ; ” an 
assurance  was  then  given  that  “ his  sins  were  pardoned,”  and 
that  he  “ was  saved  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.”  But  what 
shall  we  say  when  we  remember  that  this  conversion  was  soon, 
and  emphatically,  denied  by  Mr.  Wesley?  January  4,  1739, 
not  eight  months  after  that  eventful  evening  in  Aldersgate- 
street,  he  writes  in  his  journal  the  words  which  follow,  [the 
italics  being  ours:]  My  friends  affirm  I am  mad,  because  I 
said  I was  not  a Christian  a year  ago.  I affirm,  I am  not  a 


"Wesley  in  Savannah. 


625 


Christicm  now.  . . . But  that  I am  not  a Christicm  at  this 
day  I as  assui'edly  know  as  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ.  For  a 
Christian  is  one  who  has  the  f ruits  of  the  Spirit  of  Christy 
which  {to  mention  no  more)  are  love,  peace,  joy.  But  these  I 
have  notP  He  had  not  love,  he  tells  us,  because  sometimes  he 
had  “ more  pleasure  in  the  world  than  in  God.”  He  had  not 
joy,  because  the  joy  which  he  felt  was  transient,  and  no 
greater  than  that  which  he  had  “ on  some  worldly  occasions.” 
Hor  had  he  even  peace,  for  the  peace  which  he  had  might  “ be 
accounted  for  on  natural  principles.” 

Reader,  what  do  you  say  to  these  things  ? Was  Wesley  still 
unconverted  ? Then  go  to  your  knees  and  call  mightily  upon 
God  for  the  forgiveness  of  your  sins.  And  yet  this  denial  of 
his  conversion  in  Aldersgate-street  was  far  more  unqualified 
than  the  denial  of  his  conversion  before  that  time. 

How  guardedly,  how  depreciatingly,  did  Mr.  Wesley  often 
speak  of  his  own  personal  experience  in  the  things  of  God ! 
Hothing  of  earthliness  would  he  allow  in  himself ; in  him  all 
earthliness  was  sin.  The  clearer  and  more  scriptural  view  of 
justification  by  faith  alone,  which  he  did  receive  from  Peter 
Bohler,  admitted  no  possible  merit  in  works  as  a ground  of  ac- 
ceptance with  God  ; and  his  notions  of  the  divine  law,  colored 
as  they  were  by  previous  ascetic  discipline,  tolerated  in  himself 
neither  the  slightest  spot,  nor  wrinkle,  nor  any  such  thing, 
whether  in  act,  or  word,  or  thought.  But  how  strange  the  con- 
trast between  what  he  denied  in  himself  and  what  he  allowed  in 
others ! Wherever  he  went,  he  witnessed  conversions  and 
sanctifications  which  to  him  were  clear  and  coirvincing.  In  the 
conversion  and  sanctification  of  thousands  he  placed  the  most 
implicit  confidence,  while  his  own  were  questioned  and  even 
denied.  What  catholicity ! what  liberality ! what  condemnation 
of  self ! His  credulity  was  only  equaled  by  his  humility.  The 
truth  is,  as  in  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  humility  was  the 
characteristic  which,  more  than  any  other  trait,  distinguished 
the  apostle  of  the  great  revival  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Much  concerning  Mr,  Wesley’s  spiritual  life  previous  to  his 
so-called  conversion  may  be  learned  from  his  sermons  and 
letters  at  Oxford,  and  from  hisTiymns  written  in  Savannah. 
In  a sermon  preached  before  the  University  at  St.  Mary’s, 
Oxford,  January  1, 1733,  on  “ The  Circumcision  of  the  Heart,” 
Mr.  Wesley  said:  “Circumcision  of  the  heart  is  that  habitual 
disposition  of  soul  which,  in  the  sacred  writings,  is  termed 
holiness ; and  which  directly  implies  the  being  cleansed  from 
sin,  ‘ from  all  filthiness  both  of  flesh  and  spirit ; ’ and,  by  con- 
sequence, the  being  endued  with  those  virtues  which  were  also 
in  Christ  Jesus;  the  being  so  ‘renewed  in  the  spirit  of  our 
mind’  as  to  be  ‘perfect  as  our  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect.’” 
“Here  we  have  propounded  in  the  plainest  terms,”  says  Mr. 
Tyerman,  “as  early  as  the  year  1733,  Wesley’s  famous  doc- 
trine of  Christian  perfection,”  But  what  did  Mr.  Wesley 
himself,  in  after  years,  say  of  it  ? “ This  sermon  ” — the  ser- 

mon preached  , before  the  university  in  1733 — he  writes  in 
1765,  “contained  all  that  I now  teach  concerning  salvation 
from  all  sin  and  loving  God  with  an  undivided  heart.”  Later 
still,  in  1778,  he  writes : “ I know  not  that  I can  write  a better 
sermon  on  circumcision  of  the  heart  than  I did  flve-and-forty 
years  ago.”  In  the  same  sermon  at  Oxford,  he  also  tells  us 
that  holiness  of  heart  is  attained  by  faith  alone — “ by  unshaken 
assent”  to  these  Scriptures — “Jesus  Christ  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners,”  “ he  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on 
the  tree,”  and  “ he  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins ; and  not 
for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.”  And 
to  this  he  adds : “ Those  who  are  thus,  by  faith,  born  of  God, 
have  also  strong  consolation  through  hope.  This  is  the  next 
thing  which  the  circumcision  of  the  heart  implies ; even  the 
testimony  of  their  own  spirit  with  the  Spirit  which  witnesses 
in  their  hearts  that  they  are  the  children  of  God.”  Wonder- 
ful words  from  an  Oxford  High-Church  sacramentarian ! 
“ Such,  then,  were  the  principles,”  writes  Mr.  Tyerman,  “ held 
by  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  Oxford  Methodists  in  1733.  From 


Wesley  rif  SAVAjirifAH. 


627 


these  he  never  varied;  and  dark  will  be  the  day  when  they 
are  either  abandoned  or  forgotten  by  his  followers.” 

We  pass  by  another  sermon  written  the  same  year  and 
place,  on  “ Grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,”  etc.,  a sermon 
equally  evangelical,  and  defending  doctrines  which  distiugnish 
Wesleyan  Methodism.  We  omit  also,  “A  Collection  of 
Forms  of  Prayer  for  every  Day  in  the  Week,”  Wesley’s  “first 
printed  production,”  and  “ originally  intended  for  the  use  of 
his  college  pupils ; ” prayers  that,  “ for  reverential  feeling,  sim- 
plicity and  beauty  of  expression,  scriptural  sentiment,  Christian 
benevolence,  and  earnest  longings  for  the  highest  holiness ; 
for  adoration,  penitence,  deprecation,  petition,  thanksgiving, 
and  intercession,”  his  recent  biographer  thinks,  “have  no 
superiors,'  perhaps  hardly  any  equals,  in  the  English  language.” 
We  hasten  from  these  to  the  wonderful  hymns  written  by  Mr. 
Wesley  while  a missionary  in  Georgia. 

In  Savannah  Mr.  Wesley  acquired  three  European  lan- 
guages, the  German,  Spanish,  and  Italian.  While  there  he 
prepared  a small  volume  of  74  pages,  with  the  title-page  ; “ A 
Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns,  Charles-town,  printed  by 
Lewis  Timothy,  1737.”  This  collection  was  unknown  until 
it  was  recently  discovered  in  London.  It  had  been  supposed 
that  the  “ Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns,  1738,”  was  the 
oldest  hymn  book  Mr.  Wesley  ever  published.  But  it  was  in 
America,  not  in  England,  the  first  Wesleyan  hymn  book  was 
published ; and  it  was  prepared,  not  in  England,  but  in 
Georgia;  not  on  the  Thames,  but  on  the  Savannah.  It  had 
been  known  that  some  of  his  hymns  were  translated  in 
Savannah  from  languages  of  the  continent  of  Europe.  But 
it  seems  to  have  remained  a secret  that  to  America  is  due 
the  first  of  the  series  of  the  psalms  and  hymns  that  came 
from  the  Wesleys.  It  had  been  known  that  class-meetings, 
band-meetings,  and  Sabbath-schools — whether  called  by  these 
names  or  not  makes  no  difference,  for  they  were  one  in 
every  essential  particular  with  those  subsequently  organized 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


in  England — were  established  first  in  Savannah.  It  had  been 
known  also  that  Mr.  Wesley,  while  there,  pursued  the  custom 
of  visiting  from  house  to  house — a custom  which  has  given  to 
the  itinerant  ministry  so  much  of  its  success — and  that  wliile 
there  he  continued  his  methods  of  systematic  benevolence. 
And  it  had  been  known  that  Mr.  Wesley,  in  his  “Short  His- 
tory of  the  People  called  Methodists,”  had  said  that  these 
observances  in  Savannah  were  “ the  first  rudiments  of  the 
Methodist  Societies.”  But  it  was  not  known  till  1878  that  in 
Savannah  the  fii’st  Methodist  hymn  book  was  compiled. 

It  is  true  that  attempts  have  been  made  to  throw  discredit 
on  the  genuineness  of  this  h^onn  book.  This  has  been  because 
none  of  Charles  Wesley’s  hymns  are  in  the  Savannah  hymn 
book,  and  because  John  Wesley  has  made  no  mention  of  it 
in  his  journal.  The  first  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  Charles,  in  1737,  was  in  England.  Mr.  Wesley  left 
Savannah  for  Charleston,  December  2,  1737 ; on  December 
13  he  arrived  in  Charleston ; and  on  Saturday,  21:th,  he  “ sailed 
over  Charles-town  bar.”  This  allowed  him  nearly  two  weeks 
in  Chai'leston,  and  gave  him  ample  time  to  confer  with  Lewis 
Timothy,  the  “Charles-town”  publisher.  Mr.  Wesley  may 
have  left  Charlesfon  before  the  book  was  issued  from  the 
press ; hence,  it  may  never  have  been  seen  by  him  ; and 
hence,  perhaps,  it  happened  not  to  have  been  mentioned. 

But  December,  1737,  was  not  the  only  time  Mr.  Wesley 
was  in  Charleston.  July  31,  1736,  he  was  there  to  see  his 
brother  sail  for  England;  and  April  14,  1737,  he  was  there 
on  a visit  to  Mr.  Garden,  the  Bishop  of  London’s  commissary. 

It  has  been  said,  that  perhaps  some  Moravian  published  this 
hymn  book  without  the  knowledge  of  Mr.  Wesley.  What 
possible  motive  could  have  prompted  it  ? Could  this  have  hap- 
pened without  coming  at  some  time  to  Mr.  W esley’s  notice  ? 
And  when  it  came  to  his  knowledge,  as  it  must  have  come, 
is  not  Wesley’s  silence  about  the  fraud  more  marvelous  than 
his  silence  respecting  the  publication  ? Stronger  reasons  must 


Wesley  iy  SayajSTjS'ah. 


629 


be  adduced  to  prove  the  ‘Wbarles-town”  bjunn  book  a 
forgery,  or  show  that  it  was  surreptitiously  published.  Lewis 
Timothy,  while  Wesley  was  in  Savannah,  was  a well-known 
“ Charles-town  ” pubhsher  of  books.  The  writer  has  seen  a 
book  from  Timothy’s  “ Charles-town  ” press,  wi’itten  by  a 
Savannah  man,  and  published  just  after  Mr.  Wesley  left 
Georgia.  Lq  Eich’s  “ Bibliotheca  Americana  hTova,”  is  the 
notice  of  a “report  of  the  committee  appointed  to  examine 
into  the  proceedings  of  the  people  of  Georgia,”  etc.,  a tract 
which  was  printed  by  Lewis  Timothy. 

To  add  to  what  has  been  said,  the  Collection  of  Psalms  and 
Hymns,  eighty-four  pages,  12mo,  1738,  is  admitted  to  be  John 
Wesley’s.  And  yet  no  mention  of  it  occurs  in  Wesley’s  jour- 
nal; neither  does  it  contain  any  hymns  by  Charles  Wesley; 
nor  does  the  name  of  the  printer  or  author  appear  on  the  title- 
page.  But  in  one  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  letters,  as  Mr.  Tyerman 
states,  which  appeared  in  Eawhnson’s  “ Continuation  of  W ood’s 
Athenae  Oxoniensis,”  Mr.  Wesley  mentions  “A  Collection  of 
Psalms  and  Hymns”  pubhshed  by  him  in  1736.  “ Is  this  date 

an  error  ? ” asks  Mr.  Tyerman.  Is  it  not  rather,  we  ask,  more 
than  probable  that  the  “ Charles-town  ” hymn  book  of  1737  is 
the  one  to  which  Mr.  Wesley,  in  the  above-mentioned  letter, 
has  reference  ? Mr.  W esley  was  in  Charleston  in  1736.  He 
then  may  have  made  arrangements  with  Mr.  Timothy.  But 
the  book  may  not  have  been  pubhshed  till  1737. 

But,  however  this  may  be,  in  the  “ Charles-town  ” hymn 
book  there  are  hymns  translated  by  Mr.  Wesley  while  he 
was  in  Savannah  from  European  languages  which  he  had  ac- 
quired in  Georgia.  These  translations,  as  well  as  the  para- 
phrase of  the  lOlth  Psalm,  fully  prove  “that  if  Wesley  had 
cultivated  his  poetic  talents,  he  might  easily  have  attained  to 
no  inferior  position  among  the  bards  of  Britain.”  But  they 
are  valuable,  not  only  as  compositions  of  great  poetic  genius 
worthy  of  the  muse  of  sacred  lyric  poetry  and  of  a place  in 
the  songs  of  the  sanctuary,  but  as  indices  of  the  then  sphltual 


630 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


inner  life  of  Jolin  Wesley,  missionary  to  Tomadiiclii  and  Ms 
dusky  tribe,  Tbe  Savannah  hymns  are  among  the  noblest 
in  the  Wesleyan  collection.  The  vast  superiority  of  Wesley’s 
translations  over  the  Moravian  translations  of  the  same 
hymns  has  often  been  pointed  out.  Take  this,  from  Wesley’s 
translation  of  the  German  of  Ernest  Lange : 

O God,  thou  bottomless  abyss! 

Thee  to  perfection  who  can  know  ? 

0 height  immense  1 what  words  suffice 
Thy  countless  attributes  to  show  ? 

Unfathomable  depths  thou  art ; 

0 plunge  me  in  thy  mercy’s  sea  ! 

Void  of  true  wisdom  is  my  heart; 

With  love  embrace  and  cover  me ! 

While  thee,  all-infinite,  I set 
By  faith  before  my  ravished  eye, 

My  weakness  bends  beneath  the  weight, 

O’erpowered  I sink,  I faint,  I die ! 

Yet,  while  at  length  who  scorned  thy  might 
Shall  feel  thee  a consuming  fire. 

How  sweet  the  joys,  the  crown  how  bright, 

Of  those  who  to  thy  love  aspire! 

All  creatures  prove  the  eternal  name ! 

Ye  hosts  that  to  his  courts  belong. 

Cherubic  choirs,  seraphic  flames. 

Awake  the  everlasting  song  ! 

Thrice  Holy  ! thine  the  kingdom  is, 

The  power  omnipotent  is  thine ; 

And  when  created  nature  dies. 

Thy  never-ceasing  glory  shines. 

Or  tMs,  from  tbe  German  of  John  Joseph  Winkler : 

The  love  of  Christ  doth  me  constrain 
To  seek  the  wandering  souls  of  men ; 

With  cries,  entreaties,  tears,  to  save, 

To  snatch  them  from  the  gaping  grave. 


Wesley  in  Savannah. 


631 


For  this  let  man  revile  my  name ; 

No  cross  I shun,  I fear  no  shame; 

All  hail,  reproach!  and  welcome,  painf 
Only  thy  terrors.  Lord,  restrain. 

Or  this  from  the  German  of  Gerard  Tersteegen ; 

Is  there  a thing  beneath  the  sun 

That  strives  with  thee  my  heart  to  share  ? 

Ah,  tear  it  thence,  and  reign  alone. 

The  Lord  of  every  motion  there  1 
Then  shall  my  heart  from  earth  be  free, 

"When  it  hath  found  repose  in  thee ! 
********* 

Each  moment  draw  from  earth  away 
My  heart,  that  lowly  waits  thy  call ; 

Speak  to  my  inmost  soul,  and  say, 

“I  am  thy  love,  thy  God,  thy  all!  ” 

To  feel  thy  power,  to  hear  thy  voice, 

To  taste  thy  love,  be  all  my  choice. 

Or  this  from  the  French  of  Madame  Antoinette  Bonrignon ; 

Nothing  on  earth  do  I desire. 

But  thy  pure  love  within  my  breast : 

This,  only  this,  will  I require. 

And  freely  give  up  all  the  rest. 

Or  this  from  the  nnknown  lyric  poet  of  Spain : 

In  a dry  land,  behold  I place 
My  whole  desire  on  thee,  O Lord ; 

And  more  I joy  to  gain  thy  grace. 

Than  all  earth’s  treasures  can  afford. 

More  dear  than  life  itself,  thy  love 
My  heart  and  tongue  shall  still  employ ; 

And  to  declare  thy  praise  will  prove 
My  peace,  my  glory,  and  my  joy. 

And,  was  one  who  could  thus  sing  unconverted  ? It  may  be ; 
for  the  outward  lips  do  not  always  represent  the  heart  within  • 


632 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


the  worst  may  appear  as  angels  of  light.  But,  whatever  may 
be  said  of  John  Wesley,  he  was  an  Israelite  in  whom  there  was 
no  guile.  These  hymns,  at  least,  express  the  intense  longings 
of  a soul  all  athirst  for  God  — for  the  living  God.  We  would 
rather,  therefore,  think  that  the  Spirit  of  holiness  indited 
these  hymns ; that  his  lips  were  touched  by  the  self-same  Spirit 
of  whom,  in  the  Oxford  sermon  already  quoted,  he  wrote, 
“Without  the  Spirit  of  God  we  can  do  nothing  but  add  sin  to 
sin  ; it  being  as  impossible  for  us  ever  to  think  a good  thought 
without  his  supernatural  assistance  as  to  create  ourselves,  or  to 
renew  our  whole  souls  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness.  He 
alone  can  quicken  those  who  are  dead  unto  God,  and  breathe 
into  them  the  breath  of  Christian  life.”  We  believe  that  the 
“ breath  of  Christian  life  ” had  been  breathed  into  the  Georgia 
missionary  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

But  it  is  said  that  Wesley  in  Savannah  was  a ritualist  and 
High-Churchman.  Does  this  prove  that  he  was  unconverted  ? 
Are  all  High-Churchmen  unconverted?  Wesley,  in  old  age — 
when,  like  a ripe  apple  ready  to  drop  by  its  own  weight  from 
its  parent  stem,  he  was  fully  meet  for  the  kingdom  of  glory — 
did  not  write  a sweeping  sentence  of  condemnation  against 
High-Churchmen.  His  broad  and  heaven-bom  catholicity 
never  allowed  him  to  excommunicate  others  solely  because 
they  were  High-Churchmen  from  the  communion  of  saints 
and  fellowship  with  God’s  dear  children.  The  riper  he  was 
for  heaven,  the  greater  his  catholicity.  They  who  unchurch 
all  who  differ  from  them  in  doctrine  have  neither  the  mind 
of  Wesley  nor  the  spirit  of  Him  whose  teachings  he  so  closely 
followed. 

But  grant  that  Wesley  was  a ritualist  and  High-Church  sac- 
ramentarian  when  he  arrived  in  Savannah.  He  did  not  long 
remain  so,  for  in  Savannah  his  views  began  to  undergo  an 
entire  change.  It  was  there  his  High-Churchmanship  received 
its  deadly  wound.  He  left  Savannah  a very  different,  a wiser, 
and  a better  man.  The  great  change  begun  in  Georgia  was 


Wesley  est  Savannah. 


633 


completed  in  England ; and  so  great  was  this  change,  so  much 
did  it  make  him  feel  like  a new  man,  that  he  wrote  un- 
guardedly about  his  former  Hfe.  Any  thing  strange  in  this? 
If  some  ritualist  and  sacramentarian  of  the  Church  of  England, 
whose  piety  no  one  questions,  were  to  undergo  a change  of 
views  similar  to  Wesley’s,  might  he  not  speak  of  his  former  re- 
ligious life  as  Wesley,  after  his  so-called  conversion,  spoke  of 
his  ? If  Mr.  WiUiam  Arthur,  who  wrote  “ The  Tongue  of  Fire,” 
should  be  troubled  about  his  baptism,  and  come  to  beheve  that 
to  go  under  the  water  is  necessary  to  follow  his  Lord  fully,  what 
a new  life,  after  plunged  by  Mr.  Spurgeon  beneath  “ the  liquid 
grave,”  might  open  to  his  spiritual  vision ! Like  experiences, 
produced  by  change  of  doctrinal  views  and  Church  relations, 
are  things  of  commonest  occurrence.  Every  proselyte  to  a 
new  faith  thinks  he  has  taken  a new  departure.  The  peace 
which  settled  religious  conviction  brings  to  him  who  has  been 
troubled  about  doctrine  is  too  often  mistaken  for  a greater  and 
more  radical  change.  When  Adoniram  Judson  became  a 
Baptist  his  peace  was  greater  than  when  he  was  a Congrega- 
tionalist.  But  was  Judson,  the  Congregationalist,  an  uncon- 
verted man  when,  standing  before  the  committee  at  Bradford, 
in  Massachusetts,  he  exclaimed,  “Woe  is  me,  if  I preach  not 
the  gospel  to  the  heathen  ? ” 

But  it  is  also  said  Wesley  was  afraid  in  the  storm  on  the 
Atlantic,  while  the  Moravians,  knowing  no  fear,  were  joyfully 
singing  psalms.  What  of  this  ? St.  Paul  feared  lest,  having 
preached  to  others,  he  himself  might  be  a castaway.  This  he 
wrote  in  the  earlier  days  of  his  ministry.  Mot  until  his  last 
battle  was  fought  and  won  did  he  raise  the  triumphant  shout, 
“ I have  fought  a good  fight,  I have  finished  my  course,  I have 
kept  the  faith.”  The  increased  and  overfiowing  love,  given 
as  a new  and  confirmed  pledge  of  the  divine  approval,  and  shed 
abroad  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  eKicexvTai,  poured  out, 
mnning  over,  refining  and  assimilating  all  to  God,  cannot  be 
claimed  unless  faith,  tried  by  tribulation,  has  through  grace 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


fruited  in  patience,  experience,  and  hope.  He  who  has  just 
put  on  his  armor  has  not  the  experience  of  the  veteran  of  a 
hundred  battles.  He  who  has  just  received  license  to  pilot  a 
ship  has  not  the  confidence  of  him  who  has  piloted  ships 
through  a thousand  storms. 

Hor  is  this  all.  Some  of  the  holiest  men  have  a constitu- 
tional shrinking  from  death.  There  is  a natural  timidity  not 
inconsistent  with  faith  in  God.  On  the  other  hand,  fearless- 
ness of  death  has  often  distinguished  those  who  have  little 
claim  to  holiness,  or  even  to  justifying  faith.  The  greatest 
moral  courage  is  not  always  that  which  faces  death  without 
alarm.  There  are  other  confiicts  by  which  moral  courage  is 
more  severely  tried.  Its  sublimest  victories  are  won  on  other 
battle-fields.  To  preserve  integrity  in  a corrupt  age,  to  wage 
an  uncompromising  war  against  patronized  vice,  to  contend  for 
principle  against  scorn,  and,  in  defense  of  despised  truth,  to 
brave  contempt  and  ridicule,  require  greater  moral  heroism 
than  to  meet  death  by  land  or  sea.  Wesley  at  Oxford  and 
Savannah  was  braver  than  Lannes  at  Lodi,  or  Arnold  at  Que- 
bec. Many  fearless  of  death  are  moral  cowards;  many  shrink- 
ing from  the  pains  of  death  are  moral  heroes.  If  timidity  in 
the  hour  of  danger,  by  flood  and  tempest,  by  pestilence  and 
cyclone,  be  proof  that  one  is  not  born  again,  then  thousands 
of  truest  moral  courage  here  have  never  known  the  peace  of 
sins  forgiven.  Many  who  condemn  Wesley  for  his  experience 
on  the  Atlantic  wave  have  confessed  to  a greater  shrinking 
from  death  a hundred  times. 

That  Wesley  had  a constitutional  fear  of  the  sea  appears 
more  than  once  from  his  journal.  During  his  homewa/rd  pas- 
sage the  ship  was  driven  by  fierce  storms.  January  13,  1738, 
he  writes : “ I was  at  first  afraid ; but  cried  to  God,  and  was 
strengthened.  Before  ten  I lay  down,  I bless  God,  without 
fear.”  “ From  that  time,”  he  says,  “ I had  no  more  of  that 
fearfulness  and  heaviness,  which  before  almost  continually 
weighed  me  down.”  February  3,  1738,  h^  adds;  “Hereby  I 


Wesley  Df  SAVANifAH. 


635 


am  delivered  from  the  fear  of  the  sea,  which  I had  both 
dreaded  and  abhorred  [italics  ours]  from  my  youth.’’’’ 

But  it  is  doubtful  whether  Mr.  Wesley  ever  fully  overcame 
his  dread  of  the  sea.  September,  1713,  five  years  after  his 
experience  in  Aldersgate-street,  he  crossed  from  St.  Ives’  to 
St.  Mary’s,  one  of  the  isles  of  SciUy.  Though  he  was  in  “ the 
best  sailer  of  any  in  the  town,”  he  tells  us  that  when  the  waves 
began  to  swell  and  hang  over  their  heads  he  called  to  John 
Kelson  and  Mr.  Shepherd,  who  were  with  him  in  the  boat,  to 
unite  their  voices  with  his  in  song.  And  they  sang  “ lustily  : ” 

"VYhen,  passing  through  the  watery  deep, 

I ask  in  faith  his  promised  aid, 

The  waves  an  awful  distance  keep, 

And  shrink  from  my  devoted  head : 

Fearless,  their  violence  I dare ; 

They  cannot  harm,  for  God  is  there ! 

“ They  sang,”  he  adds,  “ with  a good  courage.” 

On  the  voyage  to  Savannah,  in  the  third  storm — which  was 
the  fiercest  of  all — while  it  was  raging  with  terrific  fury,  Mr. 
W esley  tells  us  that  “ a child  was  brought  to  be  received  into  the 
Church,”  and  that  “ after  prayers  ” they  “ spent  two  or  three 
hours  in  conversing  suitably  to  the  occasion,  confirming  one 
another  in  a calm  submission  to  the  wise,  holy,  gracious  vdll  of 
God.”  “And  now,”  he  adds,  “ a storm  did  not  appear  so  terri- 
ble as  before.  Blessed  be  the  God  of  all  consolation  ! ” And 
when  the  storm  was  at  its  height,  and  he  found  the  Germans 
happy  and  singing  praises  at  a time  “ a terrible  screaming  be- 
gan among  the  Enghsh,”  what  did  John  Wesley  do?  “From 
them  ” — the  Germans — as  he  records  in  Ins  journal — “ I went 
to  their  crying,  trembling  neighbors,  and  pointed  out  to  them 
the  difference  in  the  hour  of  trial  between  him  that  feareth 
God  and  him  that  feareth  him  not.” 

What  a sublime  picture ! Amid  the  howhng  of  the  tempest, 

the  creaking  of  the  cordage,  the  groaning  of  the  ship’s  timbers, 
40 


636 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume, 


and  the  shrieking  of  the  terrified,  the  j'oung  missionary  to  the 
Georgia  Indians,  drawing  a lesson  from  the  scene  before  him, 
was  calmly  and  hopefully  exhorting  the  timid  and  the  fearful  to 
faith  in  God.  Hever  did  John  Wesley  appear  grander  than  at 
that  moment ! He  had  but  one  constitutional  dread — a thing 
which  haunted  his  imagination  from  earliest  youth — the  waves 
of  the  sea  lashed  to  fury  by  the  storm  cloud.  And  yet  behold 
him,  when  nature  demands  repose,  sleeping  a sleep  in  the  cabin 
of  the  tempest-driven  ship  “ as  peaceful  as  an  infant’s,”  and  yet 
a sleep  whose  awakening,  he  thought,  might  be  “ at  the  bar  of 
God  ! ” Behold  him  in  the  morning  when,  refreshed  by  sleep, 
he  looks  out  upon  the  deep  and  finds  that  God,  while  he  slept, 
had  said  to  the  roaring  waves,  Peace,  be  still ! ” See  the 
smoke  of  the  incense  of  praise  which,  as  a sweet-smelling  savor, 
ascends  heavenward  from  the  lips  of  the  young  missionary  as 
he  leads  the  morning  devotions  of  the  rescued  passengers  and 
crew ! Behold  him,  in  the  fiercest  storm,  after  receiving  into 
the  ark  of  God’s  covenant  a lamb  of  the  little  fiock,  quieting 
the  terror-stricken  parents  and  children  by  pointing  them  to  the 
fear  of  God  as  a sure  refuge  and  hiding-place  from  the  storm 
— a sheet-anchor  whose  fiukes  are  so  securely  fixed  in  the  Rock 
of  ages  that  no  power  of  wind  and  wave  can  move  them  from 
their  fastenings ! 

And  yet  this  is  the  man  who  is  represented  to  us  as  a then 
trembling,  guilty  sinner,  not  knowing  God  as  his  reconciled 
Father,  or  Jesus  Christ  as  his  loving  Saviour.  This  is  the 
man  who,  in  the  first  storm,  “ lay  down  in  the  great  cabin,  and 
in  a short  time  fell  asleep,  though  very  uncertain  whether  he 
should  wake  alive  ; ” who,  in  the  third  storm,  while  receiving 
the  child  into  the  Church,  was  “put  in  mind  of  Jeremiah’s 
buying  the  field  when  the  Chaldeans  were  on  the  point  of 
destroying  Jerusalem,  and  saw  in  it  a pledge  of  the  mercy  God 
designed  to  show  us,  even  in  the  land  of  the  living.”  And 
t.biH  is  the  man  who,  after  this  storm,  again  returned  thanks  to 
God  for  the  deliverance  which  he  again  had  wrought,  and 


Wesley  in  Savannah. 


637 

« 

spoke  to  all  of  tke  difference  between  them  who  “obey  God 
from  fear  and  them  wbo  obey  bim  from  motives  of  love  ! ” 

Will  the  hypocrite  always  call  upon  God?  Was  there  an 
hour' in  which  John  Wesley,  even  at  this  period  of  his  life,  did 
not,  in  sickness  and  in  health,  in  trouble  and  in  joy,  in  storm 
and  in  calm,  always  call  upon  God  ? W esley’s  experience  in 
the  storm  on  the  Atlantic  was  his  first  experience  of  impending 
death  since  his  rescue  in  childhood  from  the  burning  at  Ep- 
worth.  He  had  come  to  believe  that  the  least  shrinking  from 
death,  however  imminent  and  ghastly,  could  not  be  reconciled 
with  perfect  faith.  Hot  yet  able  to  joy  in  prospect  of  immedi- 
ate death,  he  questioned  whether  he  had  faith  at  all.  But  he 
lets  us  into  the  secret  when,  either  during  the  first  storm,  or 
after  it  was  over,  he  wrote  in  his  journal : “ O how  pure  in 
heart  must  he  be  who  would  rejoice  to  appear  before  God  at  a 
moment’s  warning ! ” 

It  was  well,  perhaps,  that  John  Wesley’s  views  of  the  power 
of  divine  grace  to  deliver  from  all  possible  fear  would  allow  no 
weakness  whatever  in  himself.  For  the  consciousness  of  the 
slightest  weakness  only  humbled  him  the  more,  and  led  him  to 
seek  after  more  perfect  crucifixion  with  Christ.  And  it  is  well 
that  he  who  was  so  ready  to  condemn  himself  was  exceedingly 
charitable  to  the  weaknesses  of  others  ; otherwise  he  could  not 
have  given  comfort  where  it  was  most  needed.  If  he  had  not 
made  straight  paths  for  his  own  feet  he  never  could  have 
healed  many  that  were  lame  and  in  danger  of  being  turned  out 
of  the  way.  The  humility  which  a sense  of  his  own  weakness 
inspired,  caused  him  to  bear  more  meekly  his  own  cross ; the 
charity  which  was  born  of  his  humility,  the  better  enabled  him 
to  strengthen  others  to  bear  theirs. 

The  view  which  we  have  taken  in  this  article  of  W esley’s  life 
before  May,  1738,  seems  to  us  the  only  true  and  consistent  one. 
It  makes  Wesley  true  to  himself  and  his  doctrine.  All  ap- 
pears clear,  if  he  was  a truly  justified  soul  before  the  night  in 
Aldersgate-street,  and  if,  on  that  night,  he  received  the  bless- 


638 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


ing  of  entire  sanctification.  It  does  justice  to  Wesley’s  catho- 
licity and  unsectarian  spirit.  It  relieves  those  who,  not  hold- 
ing to  all  of  Wesley’s  doctrinal  views — those  other  sheep  which 
are  not  of  this  fold — yet  have  the  clear  marks  of  justifying 
and  sanctifying  faith.  His  self-depreciation,  in  this  view,  is  as 
well  understood  as  St.  Paul’s.  It  is  a view  that  gives  encour- 
agement to  many  true  children  of  God  who,  on  account  of 
W esley’s  depreciation  of  himself,  have  been  led  into  heaviness, 
or  into  doubts  about  their  acceptance  with  God.  It  reconciles 
things  in  his  experience  which  to  thousands  have  appeared 
irreconcilable.  It  illustrates  more  beautifully  his  doctrine  of 
Christian  perfection.  It  demonstrates  more  fully  that  it  is 
a blessed  privilege  that  may  be  attained  by  faith.  It  takes 
away  the  discouragments  which  many,  while  seeking  it,  have 
felt  from  what  they  have  been  led  to  believe  was  Wesley’s 
experience.  For  the  thought  that  Wesley  had  not  obtained  the 
blessing  of  perfect  love  has,  no  doubt,  led  thousands  to  fear 
that  it  is  impossible  to  attain  it.  Seen,  too,  in  its  true  light, 
his  self-depreciation,  instead  of  being  a discouragement,  will  be 
an  incentive.  But  not  only  an  incentive ; it  guards  against  pre- 
sumption. It  makes  one  more  cautious  and  searching.  It 
produces  greater  humility,  and  consequently,  greater  depend- 
ence on  grace.  It  is  a defense  against  intolerance  and  unchar- 
itableness. It  is  proof  against  Pharisaic  bigotr})-.  It  begets  a 
sense  of  unworthiness  that  makes  us  bear  the  infirmities  of 
the  weak.  It  produces  a meekness  and  gentleness  that  makes 
us  forgiving  and  Christlike.  It  magnifies  the  law,  and  is  a 
guard  against  solifidian  pride  and  sloth,  and  all  antinomianism. 
It  makes  us  more  obedient  and  careful  to  maintain  good  works. 
It  the  more  faithfully  reminds  us  to  work  out  our  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling,  and  to  sanctify  the  Lord  of  hosts 
himself,  and  make  him  our  fear  and  dread.  It  keeps  our  eyes 
more  steadily  fixed  on  the  mark  for  the  prize.  It  endures 
hardness ; it  beai’s  the  cross ; it  grows  in  grace ; it  thirsts  for 
the  living  God ; and  it  increases  in  love  to  God  and  man. 


Wesley  in  Savannah, 


639 


Nothing,  indeed,  has  been  more  discouraging  to  babes  in 
Christ  than  mistaken  views  of  "Wesley’s  experience  in  the 
things  of  God.  And  the  same  thing  is  true  of  penitents  seek- 
ing to  know  God  in  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  If  Wesley  was 
unconverted  before  1738,  what  fniits,  many  ask,  can  we  bring 
forth  meet  for  repentance,  conformable  to  amendment  and 
newness  of  life?  But  when  they  see  that  Wesley’s  seK-con- 
demnation  was  the  fniit  of  humihty,  they  are  encouraged  and 
strengthened,  knowing  that  it  is  the  evidence  of  a contrite 
spirit,  well  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God.  And  when  such  a 
man  as  Wesley  speaks  distrustfully  of  himself,  what  careful- 
ness it  works  in  others ! what  vehement  desire ! what  heart- 
searching! what  humbling  of  self!  They  say  that  Wesley’s 
experience  is  in  harmony  with  the  experience  of  him  who 
called  himself  the  chief  of  sinners,  and  less  than  the  least 
of  all  saints. 

Great  injustice  has  been  done  to  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  doc- 
trine he  taught  by  distorting  single  expressions  and  isolated 
experiences  which  occur  here  and  there  in  the  progress  of  a 
life  that  was,  as  was  St.  Paul’s,  one  protracted  conflict  from 
his  college  days  at  Oxford  till  he  closed  his  eyes  in  death 
at  his' house  in  City  Poad.  Never  was  there  an  experience 
more  clearly  illustrative  of  the  workings  of  the  divine  Spirit 
on  the  human  soul ; and  never  has  Christian  teacher,  since 
the  days  of  the  apostles,  taught  Christian  doctrine  more 
in  harmony  wdth  that  taught  by  the  great  Teacher,  and 
illustrated  by  those  whom  he  first  commissioned  to  preach 
it.  But,  while  this  is  so,  Wesley’s  experience  and  Wesley’s 
doctrine  have  suffered  by  the  unskillful  use  of  both.  Im- 
perfectly understood  by  many  as  his  doctrine  has  been,  by 
trying  to  make  consistent  the  contradictory  utterances  of  a 
falhble  and  uninspired  man,  it  has  always  had  in  it  so  much  of 
consistency  and  tnith,  even  when  imperfectly  interpreted,  that 
its  triumphs,  more  than  the  triumphs  of  any  other,  have  been 
commensurate  with  the  triumphs  of  the  gospel  as  it  was 


4 


640  The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 

preached  bj  men  on  whom  the  cloven  tongues  of  fire  descended 
at  Pentecost.  It  is,  even  as  understood,  more  nearly  the  truth 
of  God  than  any  other  formula  of  doctrine  known  to  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  If  some  skillful  hand  could  perfectly  formulate 
it,  Wesleyan  doctrine  would  soon  be  the  acknowledged  and 
undisputed  theology  of  the  Church  of  Christ.*  As  it  is,  it 
has  wonderfully  changed  the  theology  of  the  pulpit  the  world 
over,  and  no  little  modified  the  theology  of  the  schools.  Clear 
it  of  its  seeming  contradictions — contradictions  which  attach  to 
it  only  because  Wesley  is  always  made  to  interpret  Wesley,  as 
if  every  thing  he  ever  said  were  consistent  with  the  system 
of  doctrine  which  was  perfected  by  him — and  then  apply  to 
Wesley’s  experience — and  especially  the  self-condemning  things 
which  he  often  wrote  about  himself — the  same  rule  which  we 
apply  to  St.  Paul,  and  Wesley’s  doctrine  will  be  the  doctrine 
of  the  united  Church  of  the  future. 

Returning  again  to  Wesley  in  Savannah,  we  ask.  What 
motive  carried  him  to  Georgia  ? Let  Mr.  W esley  answer : 
“ Our  end,”  he  writes,  “ in  leaving  our  native  country,  was  not 
to  avoid  want,  (God  having  given  us  plenty  of  temporal  bless- 
ings,) nor  to  gain  the  dung  or  riches  of  dross  or  honor ; but 
simply  this,  to  save  our  souls ; to  live  wholly  to  the  glory  of 
God.”  And  what  were  the  results  of  his  labors  in  Savannah  ? 
The  ship  which  bore  Mr.  Wesley  back  to  England  was  passed 
by  the  ship  which  was  bearing  Mr.  Whitefield  to  Georgia. 
On  his  arrival  in  Savannah  Mr.  Whitefield  wrote  ; “ The  good 
[italics  ours]  Mr.  John  Wesley  has  done  in  America  is  inex- 
pressible. His  name  is  very  precious  among  the  people  / and 
he  has  laid  a foundation  that  I hope  neither  men  nor  devils 
will  ever  be  able  to  shake.  O that  I may  follow  him  as  he 
hath  followed  Christ  I"'"' 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Whitefield  as  to  the  results  of 
Mr.  Wesley’s  labors  and  the  savor  of  his  name  in  Georgia. 

* I am  glad  to  know  that  this  view  is  powerfully  confirmed  by  Dr.  Pope  in  his 
article  in  this  volume. 


Wesley  in  Savannah. 


641 


Such  his  testimony  to  the  Christlike  spirit  of  Wesley,  his  old 
spiritual  leader  and  adviser  at  Oxford,  and,  indeed,  his  spir- 
itual father,  as  Whitefield  always  gratefully  confessed.  And 
such  his  prayer  for  his  own  growth  in  grace ! He  thought  it 
enough  if  the  Oxford  disciple  could  be  like  his  Oxford 
teacher.  And  this  from  one  whose  conversion  while  at  Ox- 
ford has  not  been  questioned ; and  that,  too,  in  spite  of  his 
asceticism  there,  and  self-inflicted  penance  of  wearing  “ woolen 
gloves,  a patched  gown,  and  dirty  shoes,  and  living  in  Lent  on 
coarse  bread  and  sage  tea  without  sugar.”  The  conversion  of 
Whitefield  at  Oxford — the  defender  of  slavery  and  the  slave- 
trade — is  allowed;  the  conversion  of  Wesley  before  1738 — 
who  was  always  the  opposer  of  both — is  denied. 

• It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Wesley  himself,  in  after  years, 
gratefully  recounted  the  many  reasons  he  had  to  bless  God  for 
having  been  led  to  Georgia.  Mr.  Tyerman,  having  given  these 
reasons  in  W esley’s  own  words,  adds : “ These  are  no  mean 
results  to  be  realized  in  about  two  years — self-knowledge,  cau- 
tion, acquaintance  with  the  Church  that  was  to  help  him  to 
clearer  views  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  the  acquisition  of  three 
European  languages,  the  unprecedented  fact  of  preaching 
Christ  to  all  the  widely-scattered  inhabitants  of  an  English 
colony,  steps  taken  to  evangehze  negroes  and  Indians,  many 
children  religiously  educated,  and  the  way  prepared  for  pro- 
moting the  prosperity  of  Georgia  to  the  end  of  time.” 

Here,  perhaps,  it  may  be  well  to  pause  and  ask.  Is  it  provi- 
dential that  nowhere  has  Methodism  taken  a deeper  hold  on  the 
colored  race  than  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  ? The 
missions  to  the  blacks,  inaugurated  by  Dunwody  and  Capers, 
have  yielded  the  richest  harvest.  Is  it  providential  that  the 
Chickasaws,  the  Choctaws,  and  the  Cherokees,  descendants  of 
the  aborigines  to  whom  Wesley  preached  Christ  on  the  banks 
of  the  Savannah,  are  to-day  by  far  the  most  civilized  and 
Christianized  of  all  the  Indian  tribes  of  America?  Is  it 
providential  that  Georgia  is,  in  all  respects,  regarded  as  the 


642 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


empire  State  of  the  South  ? And  is  it  providential  that 
Savannah  should  be  the  first  to  propose  a monument  to  Mr. 
Wesley  to  be  biiilded  by  universal  Methodism? 

And  here  it  is  proper  to  give  the  testimony  of  some  others 
as  to  the  results  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  visit  to  Georgia.  Few  purer 
men,  if  any,  have  ever  lived  than  John  Martin  Bolzius,  who, 
at  the  time  of  Wesley’s  residence  in  Savannah,  was  one  of  the 
pastors  of  the  colony  which  the  Salzburghers  founded  at 
Ebenezer,  in  Georgia.  In  July,  1749,  this  man,  who  was 
intimate  with  Wesley  in  Savannah — who  had  entertained  him 
in  his  own  parsonage  at  Ebenezer,  and  who  knew  Wesley’s 
whole  life  in  Georgia  and  the  estimate  in  which  he  was  held 
both  while  there  and  afterward — says,  in  a letter  to  John 
Wesley:  “The  sincere  love  to  your  worthy  person  and  faithful 
performance  of  your  holy  olfice  which  the  Lord  kindled  in 
my  heart  during  your  presence  in  Savannah,  hath  not  been 
abated,  but  rather  increased,  since  the  providence  of  God 
called  you  from  us  and  showed  you  another  field  for  the  labor 
of  your  ministry.”  In  the  “ History  of  the  United  States,” 
Mr.  Bancroft,  America’s  great  historian,  writes:  “The  Wes- 
leys desired  to  make  Georgia  a religious  colony,  having  no 
theory  but  devotion,  no  ambition  birt  to  quicken  the  sentiment 
of  piety.”  And  again  he  writes : “ The  breath  of  liberty  has 
wafted  their  messages  to  the  masses  of  the  people,  encouraged 
them  to  collect  the  white  and  negro,  slave  and  master,  in  the 
greenwood,  for  counsel  on  divine  love  and  the  full  assurance 
of  grace ; and  carried  their  consolation  and  songs  and  prayers 
to  the  furthest  cabins  of  the  wilderness.”  Abel  Stevens 
records  that  Wesley’s  experience  in  Savannah  prepared  him 
“to  return  better  qualified  for  the  predestined  work  of  his 
life.”  George  Smith  tells  us,  that  “ with  unstained  integrity,” 
and  “with  increased  experience,”  Mr.  Wesley  returned  to  En- 
gland from  his  labors  in  Savannah.  Kichard  Watson,  speaking 
of  Wesley’s  life  in  Georgia,  says  that  Wesley’s  “integrity  of 
heart  and  the  purity  of  his  intentions  came  forth  without  a 


Wesley  est  Savannah. 


643 


stain.”  “The  intolerant  Higli-chni’cli  ritualist,”  writes  Dr. 
Rigg,  “ was  all  the  time,  and  especially  toward  the  end  of  his 
stay  in  Georgia,  inwardly  beginning  to  melt ; the  light  of 
spiritual  liberty,  even  before  he  quitted  Georgia,  was  beginning 
to  break  through  the  darkness  which  had  so  long  wrapped  him 
round,  and  to  dawn  into  his  sold.  . . . "Wdien  he  landed  at  Deal 
he  was  a very  different  man  from  what  he  had  been  two  years 
and  a half  before,  when  he  sailed  for  Georgia.”  And  to  this 
we  add.  If  Mr.  Wesley  had  never  come  to  Georgia,  he  might 
have  been  known  in  history  as  a distinguished  presbyter 
of  the  Church  of  England ! he  might  have  become  a bishop 
or  even  archbishop  of  York  or  Canterbury;  but  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  he  would  have  become  the  world’s  great 
reformer. 

notice  Mr.  Whitefield’s  testimony  to  the  results  of  Mr.  Wes- 
ley’s labors  in  Savannah  : “ The  good  Mr.  Wesley  has  done  there 
.'s  inexpressible.  His  name  is  very  precious  among  the  people.” 
His  name  there  is  still  “very  precious  among  the  people.” 
But  it  must  be  confessed  that  Wesley’s  name  in  Savannah  has 
done  as  much  for  the  Episcopal  as  for  the  Methodist  Church. 
The  prestige  of  his  name  has  been  somewhat  against  us.  We 
are  constantly  reminded  by  the  Episcopalians  of  Savannah 
that  Mr.  Wesley  is  theirs,  not  ours.  The  now  sainted  Bishop 
EUiott  venerated  the  memory  of  Mr.  Wesley  as  much  as  we  ; 
and  he  kept  the  clergy  and  laity  of  Georgia  true  to  the  Low- 
church  views  which  Mr.  Wesley  subsequently  fully  adopted — 
views  which  he  first  received  in  Savannah  from  the  Moravian 
elders. 

How  it  was  to  secure  to  Methodism,  where  it  rightfully  be- 
longs, the  prestige  of  Mr.  Wesley’s  name,  that  the  Wesley 
Monumental  Church  was  first  conceived.  And  a gracious  in- 
fluence it  has  had  ever  since  its  corner-stone  was  laid  by  the 
then  Hestor  of  Methodism,  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Lovick  Pierce, 
who,  at  the  time,  was  the  oldest  effective  itinerant  preacher  in 
the  world.  But,  as  Savannah  Methodists  are  unable  to  build  a 


644 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


cliurch  such  as  is  needed  to  represent  Methodism  in  the  only 
city  in  America  where  Mr.  Wesley  lived  and  labored,  they 
have  appealed  to  all  Methodists  to  help  them. 

There  is  no  place  where  so  many  representative  men  of  the 
great  Methodist  family' ai’e  to  be  seen,  as  may  often  be  seen  in 
Savannah  during  the  winter  months.  Florida  and  the  south- 
ern parts  of  Georgia  are  being  visited  by, thousands  Avho,  es- 
caping the  frosts  of  a northern  latitude,  are  seeking  the  balmy 
air  of  the  more  southern  States.  N^early  all  these  pass  through 
Savannah,  and  many  of  them  tarry  there  for  weeks  and 
months.  To  the  many  Methodists  among  them  Savannah 
Methodists  wish  to  present  a Church  edifice  that  will  be  a 
worthy  memorial  of  Mr.  Wesley  and  of  Methodism  itself. 

ISlor  is  this  all.  This  church  was  begun  at  a time  when 
the  Methodists  of  the  South  were  cut  off  from  sympathy  with 
the  other  Methodisms  of  the  world.  Slavery,  the  main  cause 
which  separated  us,  was  dead  and  buried.  However  brouglvt 
about,  we  regarded  it  as  miich  an  emancipation  of  the  white 
as  of  the  colored  race.  When  Southern  Methodists  set  up 
for  themselves,  it  was  that  they  might  not  be  hindered  in 
preaching  to  the  colored  people.  And  how  they  did  it  thou- 
sands of  the  colored  race  in  glory,  and  thousands  more  on  the 
way,  will  abundantly  testify  when  Southern  Methodist  preach- 
ers from  all  parts  of  the  South  return  with  rejoicing,  bringing 
their  sheaves  with  them.  Chancellor  Haven  and  Dr.  Rigg, 
at  the  Wesleyan  Conference,  at  Bradford,  July,  18Y8,  bore 
their  testimony  to  the  faithfulness  with  which  Southern  Meth- 
odist preachers  proclaimed  the  gospel  to  the  blacks.  The  col- 
ored brethren,  who  came  as  fraternal  messengers  from  the  Af- 
rican Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Soiith,  held  at  Atlanta, 
Georgia,  May,  1878,  bore  witness  to  the  same,  amid  the  tears 
and  halleluias  of  those  who,  in  the  log-cabin,  in  the  cotton 
and  rice  fields,  in  forest  grove,  and  in  Methodist  churches  in 
city  and  village  and  country,  had  baptized  their  children. 


Wesley  in  Savannah. 


645 


prayed  with  their  dying,  partaken  with  them  of  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord’s  Supper,  and  preached  to  them  Jesus  and  the 
resurrection.  Who  will  forget  the  thrilling  words  of  the 
Rev  W.  D.  Johnson,  'when,  confessing  that  his  race  had  been 
led  to  Christ  by  the  preachers  of  the  Church  South,  he  made 
this  appeal : “ The  mother  can  well  afford  to  assist  the  child 
in  setting  up  for  himseK,  when,  with  a loving  heart,  the  debt 
of  gratitude  is  so  affectionately  acknowledged.  With  a 
mother’s  satisfaction  and  a mother’s  prayers  will  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church,  South,  undoubtedly  watch  the  further 
advancement  of  the  colored  child,  as  it  increases  in  stature, 
and  in  favor  with  God  and  man.”  Southern  Methodists  said 
that  they  would,  and  pledged  themselves  to  help  their  colored 
brethren  in  all  their  work  of  education  and  preaching,  by  all 
means  in  their  power.  They  hailed  all  true  fraternal  signs, 
and  when  the  fraternal  hand  was  held  out  they  took  it  in  hope 
that  the  dead  past  would  forever  bury  its  dead.  It  was  then 
Savannah  Methodists  offered  the  Wesley  Montemental 
Chttech  as  the  olive  branch  of  peace,  and  hoped  that  it  would 
prove  a nucleus  around  which  might  crystallize  the  prayers  of 
all  who  longed  for  rest  from  strife.  The  reception  which  the 
proposition  met  at  the  Round  Lake  Camp-meeting,  in  Hew 
York,  in  1875,  and  at  the  .General  Conference  in  Baltimore,  in 
1876,  from  the  bishops  and  distinguished  clergymen  and 
laymen  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  did  more  to  ac- 
complish fraternity  than  all  the  speeches  and  resolutions  ever 
spoken  or  written  on  the  subject.  And  to  this  Bishop  Bow- 
man and  Chancellor  Haven,  the  distinguished  fraternal  mes- 
sengers from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  the  Wes- 
leyan Conference,  at  Bradford,  in  a joint  published  address 
to  the  Methodists  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  gave  their 
testimony. 

The  noble  gifts  of  Mr.  Oliver  Hoyt,  of  Stamford,  Connecti- 
cut, and  of  Mr.  G.  J.  Ferry,  of  Orange,  Hew  Jersey,  to  the 
Monumental  Church,  carried  gladness  to  Savannah  Methodists 


646 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


and  to  all  Methodists  of  the  South.  Nor  was  this  confined  to 
Methodists.  Nothing,  since  the  Southern  flag  was  furled  at 
Appomattox,  spoke  so  eloquently  and  touchingly  to  the  South- 
ern heart.  It  assured  Southern  Methodists  that  the  grace  of 
God  is  able  to  break  down  all  prejudice  and  overcome  all  en- 
mities. It  convinced  us  that  Methodist  “ blood  is  thicker  than 
water.”  It  was  a Savannah  boy,  Commodore  Tatnall,  of  the 
United  States  Navy,  (another  Savannah  boy,  John  E.  Ward, 
then  the  United  States  Minister  to  China,  sustaining  Tatnall  in  it 
before  his  government,)  who,  in  spite  of  our  treaty  with  China, 
and  the  risk  of  incurring  the  displeasure  of  the  authorities  at 
Washington,  crying  Blood  is  thicker  them  water,'’’  rushed  to 
the  rescue  of  imperiled  British  seamen,  and  snatched  them 
from  death  by  the  waves  of  a Chinese  sea  and  the  guns  of  a 
Chinese  fort.  It  was  the  tonic  tide  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood 
flowing  in  the  veins  of  the  gallant  Georgian  which  constrained 
him  to  fly  to  the  help  of  his  struggling  British  cousins.  And 
so  we  felt  that  the  old  Methodist  blood,  which  ran  in  the  veins 
of  the  earlier  Methodist  fathers  and  made  us  kinsmen,  was 
warming  toward  us,  anxious  once  more  to  acknowledge  the 
kinship  and  its  obligations.  How  much  has  this  feeling 
deepened,  since,  to  the  appeal  of  Savannah  Methodists,  a gen- 
erous response  has  been  given  by  Methodists  the  world  over ! 
And  now,  if  this  monument  to  the  great  founder  were  builded, 
the  mighty  throng  of  Methodists  in  glory,  with  Charles  Wesley 
to  lead  the  choir,  would  make  heaven’s  eternal  arches  resound 
with  jubilees  over  this  sure  harbinger  of  the  return  of  fellow- 
ship to  all  the  Methodist  families  of  the  earth.  Do  not  think 
this  rhetoric — high-sounding  hyperbole.  Do  not  think  the 
thing  too  insignificant  to  etfect  such  result : — 

“ The  coarsest  reed  that  trembles  in  the  marsh, 

If  Heaven  select  it  for  its  instrument, 

May  shed  celestial  music  on  the  breeze 
As  clearly  as  the  pipe  whose  virgin  gold 
Befits  the  lips  of  Phoebus.” 


Wesley  est  Savannah. 


647 


It  is  not  insignificant,  for  God  is  in  it  and  God  has  blessed  it. 
It  is  not  the  gift,  but  the  altar,  wbieb  sanctifies  the  gift.  It  is 
not  this  monument  to  Mr.  Wesley,  but  the  heart  which  lies 
behind  it  and  prompts  it.  It  is  the  outward  expression  of  the 
inward  feeling— the  embodiment  of  that  which  universal 
Methodism  is  craving  as  thirsty  traveler  for  cooling  brook — 
peace,  concord,  and  unity  in  all  the  borders  of  our  wide-spread 
Zion. 

Let  us,  therefore,  build  this  monument  to  Mr.  Wesley.  Let 
not  only  Methodists  of  every  name— for  Methodists,  by  what- 
ever name  distinguished,  are  one  the  world  over — but  let  all 
the  Evangelical  Churches  lend  a helping  hand.  For  all  are  in- 
debted to  the  life-work  of  John  Wesley.  The  great  Methodist 
reformer  is  the  special  gift  of  God  to  the  Church  purchased 
with  the  blood  of  his  Son.  We  who  are  Methodists  have  no 
right  to  appropriate  him.  The  common  gift  to  all,  the  Church 
universal  should  claim  him,  just  as  we  all  have  a common  claim 
to  Abraham,  to  Moses,  to  Peter  the  fisherman,  and  to  Paul  the 
tent-maker. 

A MONUMENT  TO  JoHN  Wesley  IN  Savannah  ! What  a 
wonderful  and  gracious  providence!  It  is  the  Lord's  doing, 
and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes ! Little  did  the  Georgia  mis- 
sionary, when,  fieeing  before  his  persecutors  and  struggling 
through  the  swamps  of  Carolina,  he  was  tempted  to  believe  his 
life  a failure,  dream  that,  in  a little  over  one  hundred  years, 
nearly  six  million  followers  and  more  than  twenty  million 
adherents  would  erect  a monument  to  his  memory  on  the  very 
spot  whence  he  fied  a fugitive  almost  in  despair.  What  a 
glorious  day  it  will  be  when  universal  Methodism,  as  some 
humble  recompense  to  his  memory  for  his  life  of  toil  and 
sufferings  in  Savannah,  consecrates  there  a memorial  to  their 
common  founder ! What  a happy  time  it  will  be  when  repre- 
sentative men  and  women  from  the  Methodist  famihes  of  the 
earth  meet,  in  the  ancient  city  of  Oglethorpe,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Savannah,  to  dedicate  to  the  worship  of  Almighty  God  the 


648 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


Monumental  Church  whieli  their  gratitude  and  piety  have 
reared  in  honor  of  the  great  and  good  Wesley ! To  God  he 
ascribed  all  the  glory,  whose  servant  John  Wesley  was  ! Then 
may  grace  condescendingly  call  the  walls  of  this  church  Salva- 
tion, and  its  gates  Praise.  And  there,  as  of  late  on  the  Wes- 
ley Memorial  in  W estminster  Abbey,  let  it  be  written : 

“ The  best  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us.” 

“ I LOOK  UPON  THE  WHOLE  WoRLD  AS  MY  PaRISH.” 

God  buries  the  Workmen,  but  carries  on  his  Work.” 


WESLEY  AND  THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT 

JUDGED  BY  NEARLY  A HUNDRED  WRITERS,  LIVING  OR  DEAD. 


We  figure  society  as  a “ machine,”  and  that  mind  is  opposed  to  mind,  as  body  is 
to  body ; -srhereby  two,  or  at  most  ten,  little  minds  must  be  stronger  than  one  great 
mind.  Notable  absurdity ! For  the  plain  truth,  very  plain,  we  think,  is,  that 
minds  are  opposed  to  minds  in  a very  different  way ; and  one  man  that  has  a higher 
wisdom,  a hitherto  unknomi  spiritual  truth  in  him,  is  stronger,  not  than  ten  men 
that  have  it  not,  or  than  ten  thousand,  but  than  all  men  that  have  it  not ; and 
stands  among  them  with  a quite  ethereal,  angelic  power,  as  with  a sword  out  of 
heaven’s  own  armory,  sky-tempered,  which  no  buckler,  and  no  power  of  brass,  will 
finally  withstand. — Caeltle. 


N 


O man  of  the  Church  of  the  eighteenth  century  has  had 
so  much  written  about  him  as  John  Wesley.  Books  upon’ 
books  have  been  written  devoted,  in  whole  or  in  part,  to  his 
life  and  work.  From  those  to  Which  we  have  direct  or  indirect 
access  we  have  selected  sayings  of  nearly  one  hundred  different 
authors,  representing  nearly  every  shade  of  opinion  within  and 
without  the  pale  of  Wesleyan  Methodism.  These  were  either 
his  contemporaries,  or  they  are  those  who  came  after  him. 
What  has  been  said  of  him  by  these  different  authors,  when 
viewed  as  a whole,  is  simply  marvelous ; of  no  other  man  of 
his  times  could  a tenth  part  as  much  be  written  as  appears  in 
the  extracts  which  follow. 

In  these  we  have  given  by  far  the  greatest  space  to  the  latest 
publications.  In  the  last  year  or  two  several  works  have  ap- 
peared relating  to  Wesley  and  Methodism,  written  by  those 
who  rank  among  the  very  ablest  English  writers  of  the  present 
day.  Among  these  we  may  mention  “ The  History  of  English 
Thought  in  .the  Eighteenth  Century,”  by  Leslie  Stephen  ; “ A 
Short  History  of  the  English  People,”  by  J.  P.  Green ; “ En- 
gland in  the  Eighteenth  Century.”  by  W.  E.  H.  Lecky ; “ A 
History  of  the  Church  of  England,”  by  G.  G.  Perry ; “ The 


650 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


Evangelical  Movement : its  Parentage,  Progress,  and  Issue,’’ 
by  Mr.  Gladstone ; “ Religion  in  England  under  Queen  Anne 
and  tlie  Georges,”  by  J.  Stoughton  ; and  “ The  English  Church 
in  the  Eighteenth  Century,”  by  C.  J.  Abbey  and  J.  TI.  Overton. 
Our  extracts  are  so  copious  from  these,  that  the  reader  will  find 
in  them  the  sum  and  substance  of  what  their  authors  have 
respectively  said  of  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  movement. 
This  is  true  of  all  the  works  above  mentioned  except  the  work 
of  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen ; the  reader  will  find  him  quoted  at 
length  in  the  article  “ Wesley  and  Methodism.”  We  are  per- 
suaded that  this  paper  presents  such  a view  of  Wesley  and  the 
Methodist  movement  as  can  be  found  nowhere  else.  Many 
volumes  would  have  to  be  read  to  get  what  is  here  presented 
in  comparatively  a few  pages. 

Whatever  is  included  in  brackets,  or  in  larger  type,  in  this 
paper,  has  been  added  by  the  Editor.  In  the  extracts  the 
reader  will  find  abundant  authority  for  every  thing  said  of 
Wesley  and  Methodism  in  this  volume. 

Of  the  two  greatest  and  most  useful  ministers  I ever  knew,  one  [White- 
field]  is  no  more.  The  other,  [John  Wesley,]  after  amazing  labors,  flies 
still  with  unwearied  diligence ‘through  the  three  kingdoms,  calling  sin- 
ners to  repentance,  and  to  the  healing  fountain  of  Jesus’  blood.  Though 
oppressed  with  the  weight  of  nearly  seventy  years,  and  the  care  of  nearly 
thirty  thousand  souls,  he  shames  still,  by  his  unabated  zeal  and  immense 
labors,  all  the  young  ministers  in  England,  perhaps  in  Christendom.  He 
has  generally  blowu  the  gospel  trump,  and  ridden  twenty  miles,  before 
most  of  the  professors  who  despise  his  labors  have  left  their  downy  pil-' 
lows.  As  he  begins  the  day,  the  week,  the  year,  so  he  concludes  them, 
still  intent  upon  extensive  services  for  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer,  and 
the  good  of  souls. — John  Fletcheb,  of  Madeley. 

As  a scholar,  poet,  logician,  critic,  philosopher,  politician,  legislator, 
divine,  public  teacher,  and  deeply  pious  and  extensively  useful  man,  he 
had  no  superior,  and  few,  if  any,  equals.  . . . Justice  can  never  be  done 
him  unless  he  be  viewed  in  all  these. — Adam  Clarke. 

I make  no  doubt  that  Methodism,  notwithstanding  all  the  wiles  of 
Satan,  is  designed  by  divine  Providence  to  introduce  the  approaching 
millennium. — Vincent  Perronet,  Vicar  of  Shoreham. 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  651 


God  hath  raised  you  up  to  propagate  his  spiritual  kingdom  in  the 
hearts  of  men. — Vincent  Perronet;  in  a letter  to  John  Wesley. 

We  have  engaged  to  erect  it,  [the  college  determined  on  at  the  Confer- 
ence held  in  Georgia,  March  9,  1789,]  God  willing,  within  five  years, 
and  do  most  humbly  entreat  Mr.  Wesley  to  permit  us  to  name  it  Wesley 
College,  as  a memorial  of  his  affection  for  poor  Georgia,  and  of  our  great 
respect  for  him. — Thomas  Coke. 

When  w'e  consider  his  plain  and  nervous  writings,  his  uncommon  talent 
for  sermonizing  and  journalizing,  that  he  had  such  a steady  flow  of  animal 
spirits,  so  much  of  the  spirit  of  government  in  him,  his  knowledge  as 
an  observer,  his  attainments  as  a scholar,  his  experience  as  a Christian, 
I conclude  his  equal  is  not  to  be  found  among  all  the  sons  he  hath 
brought  up,  nor  his  superior  among  all  the  sons  of  Adam  he  may  have 
left  behind. — Francis  Asburt. 

I wms  like  a wandering  bird  cast  out  of  the  nest,  until  Mr.  John  Wes- 
ley came  to  preach  his  first  sermon  in  Moorfields.  O,  that  was  a blessed 
morning  to  my  soul  I As  soon  as  he  got  upon  the  stand  he  stroked  back 
his  hair,  and  turned  his  face  toward  where  I stood,  and  I thought  fixed 
his  eyes  on  me.  His  countenance  struck  such  an  awful  dread  upon  me 
before  I heard  him  speak,  it  made  my  heart  beat  like  a pendulum,  and 
when  he  did  speak,  I thought  his  whole  discourse  was  aimed  at  me. 
When  he  had  done  I said,  “This  man  can  tell  me  the  secrets  of  my 
heart.  He  hath  not  left  me  there,  for  he  hath  showed  the  remedy, 
even  the  blood  of  Jesus.”  Then  was  my  soul  filled  wdth  consolation, 
through  hope  that  God  for  Christ’s  sake  would  save  me.  — John 
Nelson. 

How  many  sons  and  daughters,  begotten  by  him  through  the  gospel, 
shall  at  that  day  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed! — shall  own  and  confess 
him  their  spiritual  father,  while  he  looks  round  with  astonishment  and 
asks,  “Who  hath  begotten  me  these?” — Joseph  Benson. 

Now  that  he  is  no  longer  the  object  of  envy,  it  is  hoped  prejudice 
will  give  way  to  more  candid  and  honorable  sentiments,  and  thereby 
leave  the  public  at  liberty  to  do  justice  to  one  of  the  greatest  characters 
that  has  appeared  since  the  apostolic  age. — Lady  Maxwell. 

I do  not  know  that  I ever  heard  of  a life  so  crowded  with  action; 
so  universally  filled  up  with  and  for  God.  Not  one  vacant  moment  in 
the  twenty-four  hours!  Many  sons  have  done  well;  but  if  I do  not 
see  him  through  a too  flattering  medium,  he  excels  them  all. — Lady 
Maxwell. 

On  looking  over  my  journal,  I miss  some  observations  which  I wrote 
41 


652 


The  Wesley  Mejiorial  Volhime. 


on  the  death  of  my  dear  father  in  Christ,  Mr.  Wesley.  ...  I shall  have 
cause  to  bless  God  throughout  eternity  that  ever  I knew  that  precious 
and  highly  favored  servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus. — Mart  Fletcher. 

The  solemnity  of  the  dying  hour  of  that  great  and  good  man,  I be- 
lieve, will  be  ever  written  on  my  heart.  A cloud  of  the  divine  presence 
rested  on  all ; and  while  he  could  hardly  be  said  to  be  an  inhabitant  of 
earth,  being  now  speechless,  and  his  eyes  fixed,  victory  and  glory  vrere 
written  on  his  countenance,  and  quivering,  as  it  were,  on  his  dying  lips. 
No  language  can  paiqt  rvhat  appeared  in  that  face ! The  more  we  gazed 
upon  it,  the  more  we  saw  of  heaven  unspeakable! — Hester  Ann 
Rogers. 

. . . Finding  that  we  could  not  understand  what  he  said,  he  paused  a 
little,  and  then,  with  all  his  remaining  strength,  cried  out,  “ The  best  of 
ALL  IS,  God  is  with  us!  ” and  then,  as  if  to  assert  the  faithfulness  of  our 
promise-keeping  Jehovah,  and  comforting  the  hearts  of  his  weeping 
friends,  lifting  vp  his  dying  arm  in  token  of  victory,  and  raising  his  feeble 
voice  with  a holy  triumph  not  to  be  expressed,  he  again  repeated  the  heart- 
reviving  words,  “ God  is  with  us  ! ” . . . The  last  word  he  was  heard  to 
articulate  was,  “Farewell!”  A few  minutes  before  ten,  while  we 
were  kneeling  around  his  bed,  according  to  his  oft-repeated  desire,  with- 
out a lingering  groan,  this  man  of  God  gathered  up  his  feet  in  presence 
of  his  brethren.  We  felt  what  is  inexpressible.  The  ineffable  sweet- 
ness that  filled  our  hearts  as  our  beloved  pastor,  father  and  friend  en- 
tered into  his  Master’s  joy,  for  a.  few  moments  blunted  the  edge  of  our 
painful  feelings  on  this  glorious  yet  melancholy  occasion. — Elizabeth 
Ritchie. 

No  agency  has  appeared  in  the  Church,  or  out  of  it,  tending  to  the 
general  instruction  and  evangelizing  of  the  nation,  and  operating  on  a 
large  scale,  which  is  not  much  subsequent  in  its  origin  to  the  exertions 
of  the  Messrs.  Wesley  and  Wliitefield,  and  which  may  not  be  traced  to 
the  spirit  which  they  excited,  and  often  into  the  very  bosoms  of  those 
who  derived  their  first  light  and  influence  either  directly  or  indirectly 
from  them. — Richard  Watson. 

In  the  course  of  fifty  years  Wesley  gave  away  between  twenty  and 
thirty  thousand  pounds. — Dr.  Whitehead. 

Mr.  Wesley’s  accounts  lie  before  me,  and  his  expenses  are  noted  with 
the  greatest  exactness.  Every  penny  is  recorded ; and  I am  persuaded 
the , suijposed  £30,000  might  be  increased  several  thousands  more. — 
Henry  Moore. 

I know  that  from  the  Conference  of  1780  to  the  Conference  of  1781  he 


"Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  653 


gave  away  in  private  charities  about  £1,400.  He  told  me  himself,  in 
1787,  that  he  never  gave  away  out  of  his  own  pocket  less  than  £1,000  a 
year.  He  never  relieved  poor  people  in  the  streets  but  he  removed  his 
hat  to  them  when  they  thanked  him. — Samuel  Bradbuhn. 

For  upward  of  eighty-six  years  I have  kept  my  accounts  exactly.  I 
will  not  attempt  it  any  longer,  being  satisfied  with  the  continued  con- 
viction that  I save  all  I can  and  give  all  I can;  that  is,  all  I have. — 
John  Wesley,  July  16,  1790. 

Sir — I have  two  silver  spoons  at  London  and  two  at  Bristol.  This  is 
all  the  plate  I have  at  present ; and  I shall  not  buy  any  more  while  so 
many  around  me  want  bread. — John  Wesley:  reply  to  the  Commissioner 
of  Excise. 

Perhaps  the  most  charitable  man  in  England  was  Mr.  Wesley.  His 
liberality  to  the  poor  knew'  no  bounds  but  an  empty  pocket.  He  gave 
away,  not  merely  a certain  part  of  his  income,  but  all  that  he  had.  His 
own  wants  provided  for,  he  devoted  all  the  rest  to  the  necessities  of 
others. — John  Hampson,  Jun. 

No  man  was  accustomed  to  address  larger  multitudes,  or  wuth  greater 
success.  ...  It  may  be  fairly  questioned  whether  any  minister  in  mod- 
ern ages  has  been  instrumental  in  effecting  a greater  number  of  conver- 
sions. He  possessed  all  the  essential  requisites  of  a great  preacher;  and 
in  nothing  was  he  inferior  to  his  eminent  friend  and  contemporary  ex- 
cept in  voice  and  manner.  In  respect  of  matter,  language,  and  arrange- 
ment, his  sermons  were  vastly  superior  to  those  of  Whitefield. — Thomas 
.Jackson. 

When  the  late  Earl  of  Liverpool  read  its  peroration  [to  one  of  Wesley’s 
sermons]  in  Southey,  he  declared  that,  in  his  judgment,  it  was  the  niost 
eloquent  passage  he  had  ever  met  w'ith  in  any  writer,  ancient  or  modern. 
— Thomas  Jackson. 

Abel  Stevens  a£6.rms  that  a sermon  which  Wesley  preached 
at  Bristol  was  the  most  impassioned  of  his  sermons,  containing 
passages  as  eloquent  as  the  pulpit  literature  of  our  language 
affords. 

The  spirit  of  Wesley’s  labors,  and  the  character  which  he  impressed 
upon  his  Societies,  were  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  brightest  triumphs 
of  civilization,  intellectual  progress,  and  religious  advancement  which 
mark  the  present  period  of  our  world’s  history ; if,  indeed,  they  were 
not  always,  what  in  some  instances  they  undoubtedly  were,  the  germs 
whence  these  glories  of  our  days  grew  up. — George  Smith. 


654 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


The  history  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  is  not  only  a desideratum  to  gen- 
eral  readers,  but  especially  so  to  the  statesman,  Christian  philosopher, 
philanthropist,  and,  indeed,  to  every  one  who  deeires  to  possess  a full 
knowledge  of  the  religious  state  and  progress  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
— George  Smith. 

He  whom  Providence  makes  a wonder  must  become  a study.  John 
Wesley  is,  therefore,  increasingly  an  object  of  attention;  and  thoughtful 
men  desire  to  know  the  springs  of  his  power.  Great  works  ever  reflect 
back  upon  their  authors  the  interest  they  have  themselves  excited;  and 
thus,  as  men  encounter  the  result  of  Wesley’s  labors  in  every  nook  of 
England,  on  every  shore  of  our  colonies,  and  in  every  State  of  America, 
they  naturally  turn  back  to  the  man,  and  inquire  into  his  mental  and  moral 
characteristics.  That  those  who  are  called  his  own  followers  should 
study  him  is  only  natural;  but  as  time  widens  the  range  over  which  his 
memory  spreads,  and  dissipates  many  misconceptions  through  which  it 
was  formerly  seen,  it  is  equally  natural  that  from  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  from  the  philosophic  world,  eyes  should  search  for  the  true  character 
of  this  universal  agent  in  the  new  forms  and  combinations  which  Chris- 
tianity has  exhibited  in  our  day. — William  Arthur. 

0 that  [written  from  Savannah  on  Whitefield’s  first  arrival  there]  I 
may  follow  him  [Wesley]  as  he  hath  followed  Christ! — George  White- 
field. 

Ipse,  [written  when  Whitefield  was  embarking  for  Georgia,  September 
12,  1769]  Deo  volente,  sequor,  etsi  non  passibus  asquis. — George  White- 
field. 

Wesley  will  be  so  near  the  throne,  and  we  shall  be  at  such  a distance, 
that  I shall  hardly  get  a sight  of  him. — George  Whitefield. 

1 leave  a mourning  ring  [Whitefield’s  last  will  and  testament]  to  my 
honored  and  dear  friends  and  disinterested  fellow-laborers,  the  Rev. 
Messrs.  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  in  token  of  my  indissoluble  union 
with  them  in  heart  and  Christian  affection,  notwithstanding  our  differ- 
ence in  judgment  about  some  particular  points  of  doctrine. — George 
Whitefield. 

Wesley’s  ministry  was  so  full  of  profit  and  consolation  to  him  [George 
Whitefield]  that  he  [Whitefield]  always  accounted  him  his  spiritual 
father. — John  Gillies:  “Memorials  of  Whitefield.” 

A chosen  vessel  [John  Wesley]  set  for  the  defense  of  the  gospel. — 
Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon. 

I have  often  experienced  your  words  to  be  as  thunder  to  my  drowsy 
soul.  I presume,  though  a stranger,  to  become  a petitioner,  begging 


Wesley  akd  the  Methodist  Movejieht.  655 


you  would  send  me  a personal  charge  to  take  heed  to  feed  the  flock 
committed  unto  me.  . . . It  is  the  request  of  one  who,  though  he  dif- 
fers from  you,  and  possibly  ever  may,  on  some  points,  yet  must  ever 
acknowledge  the  beneflt  and  light  he  has  received  from  your  work  and 
preaching ; and,  therefore,  is  bound  to  thank  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  for 
sending  a laborer  among  us  so  much  endowed  with  the  spirit  and  power 
of  Elias ; and  to  pray  for  your  long  continuance  among  us,  to  encourage 
me  and  my  brethren  by  your  example,  while  you  edify  us  by  your  writ- 
ings.— Henry  Venn:  in  a letter  to  John  Wesley. 

I see  no  reason  why  we  should  keep  at  a distance  while  we  continue 
servants  of  the  same  Master,  and  especially  when  Lot’s  herdsmen  are  so 
ready  to  lay  their  staves  on  our  shoulders.  Though  my  hand  has  been 
mute,  my  heart  is  kindly  affected  toward  you. — John  Berbidge:  in  a 
letter  to  John  Wesley. 

The  more  I write  the  more  I love  you.  I am  sure  you  are  one  of  God’s 
elect. — Howell  Harris:  in  a letter  to  Wesley. 

Excuse  my  frank  acknowledgments,  and  give  me  leave  to  differ  and 
love.  God  bless  you  to  your  latest  period,  and  make  your  last  days 
your  best. — Cornelius  Winter:  in  a letter  to  Wesley. 

I will  invite  you,  my  father  and  friend,  to  meet  me  among  the  spirits 
of  the  just  made  perfect,  since  I am  not  likely  to  see  you  any  more  in 
the  flesh.  Then  will  I bid  you  welcome ; yea,  I will  tell  of  your  love  be- 
fore the  universal  assembly,  and  at  the  tremendous  tribunal  I will  hear 
with  joy  the  Lord  Jesus  say  of  you,  “Well  done,  good  and  faithful  serv- 
ant. Tou  have  served  your  Lord  and  generation  with  your  might.  You 
have  flnished  the  work  which  my  Father  gave  you  to  do.  If  others  have 
turned  their  thousands,  you  have  turned  your  ten  thousands  from  the 
power  of  Satan  unto  God.  Receive,  therefore,  a glorious  kingdom,  a 
beautiful  and  immortal  crown,  from  my  hands  !” — James  Hertey:  in  a 
letter  to  Wesley. 

Whatever  ignorance  of  his  real  character  [Wesley’s]  the  fatuity  of 
prejudice  or  the  indolence  of  pride  may  have  suggested,  the  day  is  com- 
ing when  his  great  and  adorable  Master  will  condemn  every  tongue  that 
hath  risen  up  in  judgment  against  him,  and  say,  in  the  presence  of  men 
and  angels,  “Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord!” — Rev.  Thomas  Haweis,  LL.D.,  Chaplain  to  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  etc. 

I know  of  no  one  to  whom  my  heart  is  more  united  in  affection,  nor 
to  whom  I owe  more  as  an  instrument  of  divine  grace. — John  Newton, 
Vicar  of  Olney:  in  a letter  . to  Mr.  Wesley. 


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The  Wesley-  Memorial  Volume. 


Yet,  above  all,  his  luxury  supreme, 

And  bis  chief  glory,  was  the  gospel  theme ; 

There  he  was  copious  as  old  Greece  or  Rome, 

His  happy  eloquence  seemed  there  at  home — 

Ambition  not  to  shine  or  to  excel. 

But  to  treat  justly  what  he  loved  so  well. 

— COWPBR. 

Watts  had  lingered  in  hospitable  retirement  at  Abney  Park,  whence 
he  beheld  with  grateful  surprise  the  religious  revolution  which  was 
spreading  through  the  country.  He  received  there  occasional  visits  from 
Charles  Wesley,  Lady  Huntingdon,  and  other  leading  Methodists. 
Doddridge  still  survived,  welcoming  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys  at 
Northampton,  and  corresponding  with  them. — Abel  Stevens. 

Wesley  once  more  opened  to  me  his  whole  heart.  I entreated  him  to 
believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  that  then  [the  italics  are  ours]  not 
only  he,  hut  many  others  with  him,  [which  a Moravian  writer  considered 
projihetic  of  Wesley’s  future,]  would  he  saved. — Peter  Bohler. 

The  sincere  love  to  your  worthy  person  which  the  Lord  kindled  in 
my  heart  during  your  presence  in  Savannah,  [tlie  italics  are  ours,]  hath 
not  been  abated,  but  rather  increased,  since  the  providence  of  God 
called  you  from  us,  and  showed  you  another  field  for  the  labor  of  your 
ministry. — John  Martin  Bolzius:  in  a letter  to  John  Wesley,  from 
Ebenezer,  Georgia,  July  25,  1749. 

He  thought  prayer  to  be  more  his  business  than  any  thing  else,  and  I 
have  often  seen  him  come  out  of  liis  closet  with  a serenity  that  was  next 
to  shining;  it  discovered  where  he  had  been,  and  gave  me  double  hope 
■ of  receiving  wise  direction  in  tlie  matter  about  which  I came  to  consult 
him. — John  Gambold,  afterward  a Moravian  bishop. 

Going  forth  upon  their  pilgrimage  they  [the  Moravians  and  the  Salz- 
burghers]  are,  in  the  providence  of  God,  brought  in  contact  with  a per- 
sonage [John  Wesley]  of  great  genius  and  learning,  upon  whose  heart 
their  exemplary  deportment  and  calm  and  heavenly  temperament  made 
a lasting  impression;  and  he  subsequently  becomes,  through  the  trans- 
forming power  of  the  gospel,  a chosen  instrument,  by  which  is  put  in 
motion  the  greatest  moral  revolution  that  has  occurred  since  the  Refor- 
mation by  Martin  Luther. — Rev.  P.  A.  Strobel,  pastor — 1844-49 — of 
the  Salzburgh  Congregation,  at  Ebenezer,  Georgia:  “History  of  the 
[Georgia]  Salzburghers.” 

One  measure  naturally  led  to  another,  and  soon  Mr.  Wesley  found  it 
necessary  to  form  those  “Societies”  which  afterward  became  the  basis 


Wesley  ajstd  the  Methodist  Movement.  657 


of  that  ecclesiastical  organization  known  as  “Wesleyan  Methodism;” 
a system  whose  beneficial  effects  upon  the  spiritual  condition  of  the 
world  have  been  seen  and  felt  in  almost  every  part  of  the  globe,  and 
will,  no  doubt,  continue  to  exert  a wider  and  still  wider  influence  until 
the  end  of  time. — P.  A.  Strobel. 

It  is  a fact  susceptible  of  proof,  especially  in  relation  to  the  Methodist 
Church,  that  their  very  best  members,  [in  Savannah,  and  in  Effingham 
County,  which  the  Salzburghers  settled,  and  where  Bolzius  and  Gronau 
preached,]  both  as  to  piety  and  influence,  are  those  who  descended  from 
the  Salzburghers. — P.  A.  Strobel. 

To  your  uncle,  Mr.  Wesley,  and  your  father,  and  to  George  Whitefleld 
ajid  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  the  Church,  in  this  realm,  is  more  in- 
debted than  to  all  others. — King  George  III.;  to  Charles  Wesley,  Jun., 
the  musician. 

These  gentlemen  [the  Wesleys]  are  irregular,  but  they  have  done 
good,  and  I pray  God  to  bless  them. — Dr.'  Potter,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury. 

Mr.  Wesley,  may  I be  found  at  your  feet  in  another  world! — Dr. 
Lowth,  Bishop  of  London. 

I was  encouraged  by  him  [John  Wesley]  to  go  on  vigorously  with  my 
own  designs.  I saw  in  him  how  much  a single  man  might  achieve  by 
zeal  and  perseverance;  and  I thought.  Why  may  I not  do  as  much  in 
my  way  as  Mr.  Wesley  has  done  in  his  if  I am  only  as  assiduous  and 
persevering?  And  I determined  that  I would  pursue  my  work  with 
more  alacrity  than  ever. — John  Howard. 

John  Howard  told  Henry  Moore  that  John  Wesley  preached 
the  sermon  'which  made  the  first  impression  on  his  mind.  See 
Moore’s  “Life  of  Wesley.” 

Except  Mr.  Wesley,  no  man  ever  gave  me  a more  perfect  idea  of 
angelic  goodness  than  Mr.  Howard.— Alexander  Knox. 

For  my  own  part,  I never  was  so  happy  as  while  with  him,  [John 
Wesley,]  and  scarcely  ever  felt  more  poignant  regret  than  at  parting 
from  him,  for  well  I knew  I ne’er  should  look  upon  his  like  again. — 
Alexander  Knox. 

In  him  [John  Wesley]  even  old  age  appeared  delightful,  like  an  even- 
ing without  a cloud,  and  it  was  impossible  to  observe  him  without  wish- 
ing fervently,  ‘ ‘ May  my  latter  end  be  like  his  1 ” — Alexander  EInox. 

He  can  talk  well  on  any  subject. — Dr.  Samuxel  Johnson. 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


I could  converse  with  him  all  night. — Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 

Wesley  thought  of  religion  only. — Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 

The  lecturer  was  surely  in  the  right,  who,  when  he  saw  his  audience 
shrinking  away,  refused  to  quit  the  chair  while  Plato  stayed. — Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson. 

In  the  above  most  delicate  compliment  Dr.  Johnson,  by 
calling  Wesley  Plato,  showed  the  high  estimate  he  placed  in 
the  judgment  of  the  great  Methodist  reformer.  If  Wesley 
approved,  Johnson  cared  not  for  the  condemnation  of  others. 

Whatever  might  be  thought  of  some  Methodist  teachers,  he  [Dr.  John- 
son] said  he  could  scarcely  doubt  the  sincerity  of  that  man  who  traveled 
nine  hundred  miles  in  a month,  and  preached  twelve  times  a week  ; for 
no  adequate  reward,  merely  temporal,  could  be  given  for  such  indefati- 
gable labor. — Boswell. 

The  author  and  founder  of  these  Societies  [ the  Methodist  ] — for  he 
was  careful  himself  to  keep  them  from  being  formed  into  a sect  — • was  a 
regularly  ordained  minister,  a man  orthodox  in  his  belief,  simple  and 
disinterested  in  his  own  views,  and  adorned  with  the  most  amiable  and 
distinguished  virtues  of  a true  Christian.  He  found  thousands  of  his 
countrymen,  though  nominally  Christians,  yet  as  ignorant  of  true  Chris- 
tianity as  infidels  and  heathens ; and  in  too  many  instances  (it  is  useless 
to  conceal  or  disguise  the  fact)  ignorant,  either  through  the  inattention 
of  the  Government  in  not  providing  for  increased  numbers,  or  through 
the  carelessness  and  neglect  of  those  whom  the  National  Church  had 
appointed  to  be  their  pastors. — Bishop  Copelstone. 

I do  not  think  that  any  question  can  be  deemed  or  considered  of  a 
trifiing  nature  which  concerns  the  well-being— I may  also  say  the  exist- 
ence— of  a body  such  as  that  which  is  composed  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odists. It  is  my  firm  belief  that  to  that  body  we  are  indebted  for  a 
large  portion  of  the  religious  feeling  which  exists  among  the  general 
body  of  the  community,  not  only  of  this  country,  but  throughout  a great 
portion  of  the  civilized  world  besides.  When,  also,  I recollect  that  the 
Society  owes  its  origin  and  first  formation  to  an  individual  so  eminently 
distinguished  as  the  late  John  Wesley,  and  when  I remember  that,  from 
time  to  time,  there  have  arisen  out  of  this  body  some  of  the  most  able 
and  distinguished  individuals  that  ever  graced  and  ornamented  any 
society  whatever — I may  name  one  for  all,  the  late  Dr.  Adam  Clarke — I 
must  come  to  the  conclusion  that  no  persons  who  have  any  proper  under- 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Moveivient.  659 


standing  of  what  religion  is,  and  regard  for  it,  can  look  upon  the  gen- 
eral body  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  without  the  most  affectionate 
interest  and  concern.  — Sir  Launcelot  Shadwell,  Vice-Chancellor  of 
the  Court  of  Chancery:  from  his  decision  sustaining  the  validity  of 
Wesley’s  “Deed  of  Declaration.” 

On  appeal,  in  an  opinion  equally  pronounced,  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  sustained  the  decision  of  the  Yice- 
Chancellor,  Sir  Launcelot  Shadwell. 

The  Methodism  of  the  past  age  points  forward  to  the  next-coming  de- 
velopment of  the  powers  of  the  gospel. — Isaac  Taylor:  “Wesley  and 
Methodism.” 

The  Methodist  movement  is  the  starting-point  of  our  modern  religious 
polity,  and  the  field-preaching  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  is  the  event 
whence  the  religious  epoch,  now  current,  must  date  its  commencement. 
— Isaac  Taylor. 

No  reformer  that  the  world  ever  saw  so  remarkably  united  faithful- 
ness to  the  essential  doctrines  of  revelation  with  charity  toward  men 
of  every  Church  and  creed. — London  Quarterly  Review. 

Under  the  -horsehoof  of  Attila  the  grass  never  grew.  So  the  grass 
never  grew  under  the  tread  of  John  Wesley. — London  Athen^dm. 

The  man  that  was  to  work  a wider  change  upon  the  religious  and 
social  aspect  of  England  than  has  ever  been  effected  by  any  reformer 
since  Christianity  visited  our  shores. — Dr.  Dobbin. 

When  Wesley  appeared,  the  Anglican  Church  was  an  ecclesiastical 
system  under  which  the  people  of  England  had  lapsed  into  heathenism, 
or  a state  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  it;  Methodism  preserved 
from  extinction,  and  reanimated,  the  languishing  Nonconformity  of  the 
last  century,  which,  just  at  the  time  of  the  Methodistic  revival,  was 
rapidly  in  course  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  books. — Is.aa.c  Taylor. 

He  was  the  chief  reviver  of  religious  fervor  in  all  Protestant  Churches, 
both  of  the  old  and  the  new  wmrld. — ^Dean  Stanley. 

The  most  extraordinary  thing  about  him  [Wesley]  was,  that  while  he 
set  all  in  motion,  he  was  himself  perfectly  calm  and  jihlegmatic:  he  was 
the  quiescence  of  turbulence. — Robert  Hall. 

I have  been  reading  Dr.  Whitehead’s  “Life  of  Wesley.”  It  has  given 
me  a much  more  enlarged  idea  of  the  virtues  and  labors  of  that  extraor- 
dinary man  [John  Wesley]  than  I ever  had  before.  I would  not  incur 
the  guilt  of  that  violent  abuse  which  Toplady  cast  upon  him,  for  points 


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merely  speculative  and  of  very  little  importance,  for  ten  thousand 
worlds.  When  will  the  Christian  world  cease  disputing  about  religion, 
and  begin  to  enter  into  its  spirit  and  practice  its  precepts? — Robert 
Hall. 

But  the  great  constructive  and  organizing  mind,  appointed,  doubtless, 
by  the  Head  of  the  Church,  to  gather  and  embody  the  fruits  of  the  new 
evangelism,  can  by  no  means  be  forgotten.  John  and  Charles  Wesley, 
with  their  own  peculiar  associates,  performed  a very  eminent  part  in  the 
work  of  awakening  and  conversion;  but  in  nourishing  and  guiding  the 
multitude  of  humbler  minds  which  this  outdoor  evangelism  gathered  to 
Christ,  and  organizing  them  into  a new  spiritual  estate,  so  to  speak,  of 
his  realm,  destined  to  an  unparalleled  growth,  activity,  and  success,  in 
this  important  office,  John  Wesley  is  rather  alone  than  eminent.  . . . 
The  system  of  Methodism  must  be  admitted  by  every  observer  of  ordi- 
nary information  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  important  products  of  this 
latter  day,  and  a striking  manifestation  of  God’s  wisdom  and  providence. 
It  has  given  an  embodiment,  a consciousness,  and  an  impulse,  as  well 
as  a luxuriant  development,  to  the  most  energetic  order,  perhaps, 
of  the  Christian  mind.  . . . It  is  the  greatest,  aptest,  single  monument 
of  the  popular  religious  movement  of  the  last  century. — Wm.  C.  Conant: 
“Narratives  of  Remarkable  Conversions  and  Revival  Incidents.” 

John  Wesley  distinguished  the  origin  of  Methodism  into  three  peri- 
ods. . . . “The  second,”  he  writes,  “was  at  Savannah,  in  1736,  when 
twenty  or  thirty  persons  met  at  my  house.”  . . . Thus,  this  city  [Sa- 
vannah] and  this  Church  [Christ  Church]  are  connected  with  the  most 
marked  religious  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century.  This  historical 
relationship  the  founder  of  Methodism  himself  asserts,  and  we  must 
accept  his  decision. — Wm.  Bacon  Stevens,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  author  of  the  “History  of  Georgia:”  from  an 
address-  in  Christ  Church,  Savannah,  Ga.,  May  22,  1873,  before  the 
Fiftieth  Annual  Convocation  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

Its  history  [Methodism]  shows  that  it  was  the  natural  outgrowth  of 
that  Church-teaching  which  the  Brothers  Wesley  first  imbibed  at  Ox- 
ford, and  that  most  of  its  peculiarities  were  borrowed  by  them  from 
the  ante-Nicene  Church.  It  owes  its  birth  to  the  attempt  to  revive 
within  the  Church  usages  and  agencies  which  were  freely  used  in  the 
primitive  ages ; and  to  develop,  through  these  churchly  forms  and  la- 
bors, deeper  spirituality  in  the  believer,  and  a more  vigorous  onset 
against  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  . . . 

Even  the  innovation  of  lay  preachers,  as  a body  of  men  set  apart 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  661 


to  expound  the  word  of  God — a body  entirely  distinct  from  the  priest- 
hood and  the  diaconate — [as  well,  Bishop  Stevens  contends,  as  class- 
meetings,  band-meetings,  love-feasts,  watch-nights,  and  quarterly  tick- 
ets,] is  quite  a defensible  measure,  both  from  Scripture  and  primitive 
antiquity.  . . . 

Had  the  bishops  in  Wesley’s  day  acted  in  this  wise  way,  [done  what 
Bishop  Stevens  says  the  bishops  have  lately  done  in  England,  viz: 
“issued  letters  of  orders”  to  laymen,  and  given  them  authority  “to  read 
prayers,”  and  “to  read  and  explain  the  holy  Scriptures  within  the  par- 
ish, under  the  direction  of  the  minister  thereof,”]  what  a change 
would  have  been  wrought  in  the  Church  of  England  and  in  the  whole 
attitude  of  Methodism  toward  the  Church ! . . . 

There  was  nothing  in  tlie  views,  or  plans,  or  usages  of  the  Wesleys 
down  to  as  late  a period  as  1784,  when  John  Wesley  was  four- 
score years  old,  which  was  absolutely  antagonistic  to  the  Church  of 
England,  or  which  might  not,  without  any  wrenching  or  violence,  have 
been  brought  into  harmony  with  the  Anglican  system.  . . . That  fatal 
act  in  1784 — that  new  and  schismatic  point  of  departure  wlien  lines 
of  action  hitherto  nearly  parallel  to  the  Church  were  suddenly  de- 
flected into  a course  at  right  angles  with  all  preceding  measures — was 
the  ordina^on  of  Coke  and  Asbury  as  Superintendents  of  the  Ameri- 
can Societies. — Wm.  Bacon  Stevens. 

Let  any  one  read  Wilberforce’s  “ History  of  the  American  Church” 
and  he  will  And  it  absolutely  impossible  to  speak  another  harsh  word 
of  Wesley’s  irregular  proceedings  in  1784. — Mr.  Cueteis:  Bampton 
Lectures  for  1871. 

The  true  explanation  of  John  Wesley’s  conduct  in  this  matter  [the 
ordination  of  Coke]  may  perhaps  be  found  in  the  intensely  practical 
character  of  his  mind.  His  work  in  America  seemed  likely  to  come 
to  a dead-lock  for  want  of  ordained  ministers.  Thus  we  come  back 
to  the  old  motive — every  thing  must  be  sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  his 
work.  Some  may  think  this  was  doing  evil  that  good  might  come ; but 
no  such  notion  ever  entered  into  John  Wesley’s  head.  His  rectitude  of 
purpose,  if  not  the  clearness  of  his  judgment,  is  as  conspicuous  in  this 
as  in  the  other  acts  of  his  life. — John  H.  Overton,  Vicar  of  Legbourne, 
Lincolnshire:  “The  Evangelical  Revival,”  in  Abbey  and  Overton’s  “En- 
glish Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.” 

John  "Wesley  had  been  long  convinced  that  no  particular 
form  of  Church  government  is  prescribed  in  the  ISTew  Tes- 


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tament,  and  that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  of  one  order. 
Hence  he  wrote  as  follows  : 

“I  verily  believe  I have  as  good  a right  to  ordain  as  to  administer  the 
Lord’s  Supper.  Church  or  no  Church,  we  must  save  as  many  sinners  as 
we  can.  Wliat  instance  or  ground  is  there  in  the  New  Testament  for  a 
National  Church  ? We  know  none  at  all.  I neither  set  it  up  nor  pull  it 
down.  . . . Let  us  build  the  city  of  God.” 

And  hence  Dr.  Dixon,  in  his  “ Methodism  in  its  Origin,” 
declared  :• 

“The  constitution  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  only  a devel- 
opment of  Wesley’s  opinions  of  Church  polity.  . . If  we  mistake  not,  it 
is  to  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  that  we  are  to  look  for 
the  real  mind  and  sentiments  of  this  great  man.”] 

How  strange  that  two  such  men,  [Wesley  and  Whitefield,]  springing 
from  Oxford  and  from  the  Church  of  England,  should  each  have  come 
here  [Savannah]  to  be  the  rector  of  this  Church,  [Christ  Church,]  and 
go  hence  to  quicken  into  life  and  consolidate  into  power  the  greatest 
religious  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century  ! — Wm.  Bacon  Stevens. 

It  is  not  a little  remarkable  that  of  the  few  young  men,  students  of 
Oxford  University,  with  whom  Methodism  took  its  rise,  four  of  them, 
namely,  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  of  Lincoln  College ; the  Rev.  Charles  Wes- 
ley, of  Christ  Church  College ; the  Rev.  Benjamin  Ingham,  of  Queen’s 
College ; and  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield,  of  Pembroke  College,  should 
visit  and  labor  for  a season  in  Georgia.  It  is  also  a fact  of  peculiar  in- 
terest that  the  only  parish  of  which  John  Wesley  was  ever  rector,  and 
the  only  parish  of  which  George  Whitefield  was  ever  rector,  was  Christ 
Church,  Savannah,  thus  linking  your  parochial  history  with  the  founder 
of  Methodism  and  with  the  prince  of  pulpit  orators.  And  yet,  once 
more,  it  is  a striking  group  of  facts  that  John  Wesley,  the  leader  of  the 
greatest  religious  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century;  that  Charles 
Wesley,  the  purest  and  most  popular  hymnist  of  the  age;  that  George 
Whitefield,  whom  Christian  and  infidel  pronounced  the  greatest  preacher 
of  his  generation;  that  James  Oglethorpe,  one  of  the  noblest  philanthro- 
pists of  his  country ; that  Christian  Gottleib  Spangenburg,  the  first  Mo- 
ravian Bishop  in  America;  and  David  Nitschmann,  the  founder  of  the 
settlement  of  Bethlehem,  in  Pennsylvania,  were  all  personally  and  inti- 
mately connected  with  Georgia,  and  contributed  to  shape  its  character 
and  its  institutions. — Wm.  Bacon  Stevens. 


AYesley  and  the  Methodist  Movejient.  663 


No  four  persons  in  the  eighteenth  century  did  more  to  break  up  the 
ice-crust  that  had  congealed  over  the  Church  of  England ; to  reopen  the 
primitive  but  long-clogged  channels  of  access  to  the  people’s  hearts,  and 
outlets  of  the  people’s  emotions;  to  sow  broadcast  the  seed  of  the  divine 
word;  to  raise  up  the  public  mind  from  its  apathy  and  debasement;  and 
to  infuse  into  the  Church  fresh  life,  fresh  thought,  fresh  action,  than 
John  Wesley,  Charles  Wesley,  George  Whitefield,  and  Selina,  Countess 
of  Huntingdon. — Wm.  Bacon  Stktens. 

This  sudden  event  [Wesley’s  leaving  Georgia]  indeed  surprised  me,  for 
no  one  could  be  more  approved,  better  liked,  or  better  reported  of  by  all 
the  people  of  Georgia,  than  this  very  gentleman  was.  till  lately  he  pre- 
sumed to  expel  the  chief  magistrate’s  niece  from  the  holy  communion, 
which  has  brought  down  such  a storm  of  resentment  upon  him  as  I wish 
he  may  be  well  able  to  weather. — Rev.  Alexander  Garden,  Commis- 
sary of  the  Bishop  of  London,  at  Charleston,  S.  C. : in  a letter  to  the 
Bishop,  December  22,  1737. 

The  delegation  of  these  pious  evangelists  [the  Wesleys  in  Georgia] 
was  encouraged  by  flattering  suggestions,  and  acceded  to  with  tlie  most 
raised  expectations;  and  its  objects  were  pursued  by  them  with  untiring 
zeal  and  unsparing  self-devotedness,  through  continued  hardships.  The 
opposition  which  they  met  was  encountered  with  all  long-sufifering  and 
patience. — Dr.  Harris:  “Biographical  Memorials  of  General  Ogle- 
thorpe.” 

Yet,  was  their  labor  here  [in  Georgia]  really  a failure?  I answer.  No. 

. . . The  failures  of  the  Wesleys,  and  especially  of  John,  became  as  bea- 
cons to  him  in  all  the  future,  and  did  more,  perhaps,  to  shape  his  future 
than  could  possibly  have  been  done  by  uninterrupted  success  and  a per- 
fect fulfillment  of  his  original  designs. — Wii.  Bacon  Stevens. 

The  intolerant  High-Church  ritualist  was  all  the  time,  and  especially 
toward  the  end  of  his  stay  in  Georgia,  inwardly  beginning  to  melt ; the 
light  of  spiritual  liberty,  even  before  he  quitted  Georgia,  was  beginning 
to  break  through  the  darkness  which  had  so  long  wrapped  him  round, 
and  to  dawn  into  his  soul.  . . . When  he  landed  at  Deal  he  was  a very 
different  man  from  what  he  had  been  two  years  and  a half  before,  when 
he  sailed  for  Georgia. — James  Harrison  Eigg. 

The  good  Mr.  John  Wesley  has  done  in  America  [Whitefield  wrote  on 
his  arrival  in  Savannah]  is  inexpressible.  His  name  is  very  precious 
among  the  people ; and  he  has  laid  a foundation  [the  italics  are  ours]  that 
Ih<ype  neither  men  nor  devils  will  ever  be  able  to  shake. — George  White- 


field. 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


We  may  safely  say  that  Methodism,  as  far  as  her  peculiar  doctrines  are 
concerned,  was  bom  in  Georgia,  for  here  it  was  that  he  who  was  to  give 
them  form,  and  to  defend  tliem,  and  to  propagate  them,  emerged  from 
the  darkness  of  mystical  delusion,  broke  the  shackles  of  churchly  tradi- 
tion, and  became  fully  convinced  of  those  truths  which,  as  Wesleyan, 
have  had  so  mighty  an  influence  in  the  world. — Rev.  George  G.  Smith: 
“History  of  Methodism  in  Georgia.” 

Who  could  have  imagined  that  in  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  [from 
1736]  this  huge  wilderness  [America]  would  be  transformed  into  one  of 
the  greatest  nations  upon  earth ; and  that  the  Methodism  hegun  at  Savan- 
nah [italics  ours]  would  pervade  the  continent,  and,  ecclesiastically  con- 
sidered, become  the  mightiest  power  existing  ? — Luke  Tyerman. 

The  Wesleys  desired  to  make  Georgia  a religious  colony,  having  no 
theory  but  devotion,  no  ambition  but  to  quicken  the  sentiment  of  piety. 

. . . By  John  Wesley,  therefore,  who  resided  in  America  less  than  two 
years,  no  share  in  molding  the  political  institutions  was  desired  or  ex- 
cited. As  he  strolled  through  natural  avenues  of  palmettos  and  ever- 
green hollies,  and  woods  somber  with  hanging  moss,  his  heart  gushed 
forth  in  addresses  to  God : 

• 

. “ Is  there  a thing  beneath  the  sun 

That  strives  with  thee  my  heart  to  share  ? 

Ah,  tear  it  thence,  and  reign  alone. 

The  Lord  of  every  motion  there  ! ” 

— Bancroft. 

How  felicitously  lias  America’s  greatest  historian  quoted 
from  Tersteegen’s  beautiful  hymn  ! Did  Mr.  Bancroft  know 
that  Wesley  translated  that  hymn  “ as  he  strolled  through  nat- 
ural avenues  of  palmettos  and  evergreen  hollies,  and  woods 
somber  with  hanging  moss  ? ” If  he  did,  nothing  could  be 
more  apposite ; if  he  did  not,  it  was  a most  felicitous  hit. 

Some  of  these  translations  [John  Wesley’s,  in  the  Wesleyan  Hymn 
Book]  are  very  beautiful.  Such,  for  instance,  is  the  stanza  which  Rich- 
ard Cobden  is  said  to  have  repeated  with  his  last  breath: 

“Thee  will  I love,  my  joy,  my  crown; 

Thee  will  I love,  my  Lord,  'my  God; 

Thee  will  I love,  beneath  thy  frown 
Or  smile,  thy  scepter  or  thy  rod. 


"Wesley  akd  the  Methodist  Movement.  665 


What  though  my  flesh  and  heart  decay  ? 

Thee  shall  I love  in  endless  day.” 

Charles  J.  Abbey, 

Hector  of  Checkendon,  Oxon.,  late  Fellow  of  University  College,  Oxford: 
Abbey  and  Overton’s  “English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.” 

This  was  a regular  part  of  his  Sunday  duties,  [instructing  the  children.] 
and  it  shows  that  John  Wesley,  in  the  parish  of  Christ  Church,  Savan- 
nah, had  established  a Sunday-school  nearly  fifty  years  before  Robert 
Raikes  originated  his  noble  scheme  of  Sunday  instruction  in  Gloucester. 
— Bishop  Steyens:  “ History  of  Geoi'gia.” 

Here  is  a prototype  [commenting  on  the  facts  above  mentioned]  of  the 
modern  Sunday-school. — Thaddeus  M.vson  Haekis,  D.D.  : “Biograph- 
ical Memorials  of  General  Oglethorpe.” 

Raikes  established  the  first  of  his  Sunday-schools  in  1781,  but  it  is 
certain  that  one  was  established  before  this  by  Hannah  Ball,  [a  Method- 
ist woman,]  at  High  Wycombe,  in  1769,  and  it  is  probable  that  there 
were  also  others. — Overton. 

It  is  usually  supposed  that  Sunday-schools  were  begun  by  Raikes,  in 
1781 ; but,  though  he  appears  to  have  been  the  first  to  organize  them  on 
a suitable  scale,  there  is  no  doubt  they  were  established  by  Lindsay,  in  or 
immediately  after  1765. — Buckle:  “ History  of  Civilization  in  England.” 

It  deserves  to  be  mentioned  that  Hannah  Ball,  a young  Methodist 
lady,  had  a Methodist  Sunday-school  at  High  Wycombe  fourteen  years 
before  Robert  Raikes  began  his  at  Gloucester;  and  that  Sophia  Cooke, 
another  Methodist,  who  afterward  became  the  wife  of  Samuel  Bradburn, 
was  thejint  who  suggested  to  Bailees  [the  italics  are  ours]  the  Sunday- 
school  idea,  and  actually  marched  with  him,  at  the  head  of  his  troop  of 
ragged  urchins,  the  first  Sunday  they  were  taken  to  the  parish  church. — 
Luke  Ttbeman. 

Francis  Asbury  organized  a Sabbath-school,  1786,  in  Hanover  County, 
Virginia,  five  years  before  any  other. — W.  P.  Strickland:  “Life  and 
Times  of  Francis  Asbury.” 

“ITo  man  in  England,”  says  Mr.  Tyerman,  “took  a greater 
interest  in  Sunday-schools  than  Wesley.”  July  18,  1784, 
Wesley  wrote  in  his  journal:  “I  find  these  schools  springing 
up  wherever  I go.  Perhaps  God  may  have  a deeper  end 
therein  than  men  are  aware  of.  Wlio  knows  but  some  of  these 
schools  may  become  nurseries  for  Christians?”  January  17, 


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1787,  lie  Avrote  to  Kicliard  Rodda:  “It  seems  these  will  be 
one  great  means  of  reviving  religion  thronghout  the  nation ; ” 
January  9,  1788,  to  Duncan  Wright:  “I  verily  think  these 
Sunday-schools  are  one  of  the  noblest  specimens  of  charity 
which  have  been  set  on  foot  in  England  since  the  time  of  Will- 
iam the  Conqueror ; ” and  March  24, 1790,  to  Charles  Atmore  : 
“ It  is  one  of  the  noblest  institutions  which  has  been  seen  in 
Europe  for  some  centuries,  and  will  increase  more  and  more, 
provided  the  teachers  and  inspectors  do  their  duties.  Hothing 
can  prevent  the  increase  of  this  blessed  work  but  the  neglect 
of  the  instruments.”  * 

Wesley’s  method  of  Sabbath  instruction,  while  in  Savannah, 
was  not  merely  the  old  parish  custom  of  catechising  the  chil- 
dren on  Sunday  afternoon.  And  yet  even  this,  when  Wesley 
appeared,  had  been  abandoned  by  the  parochial  clergy.  The 
good  Bishop  Wilson,  it  is  true,  had  kept  it  up  in  the  Isle  of 
Man ; elsewhere  it  had  fallen  into  general,  if  not  entire,  disuse 
till  Wesley  restored  it.  But  Wesley  did  a great  deal  more  than 
film  ply  catechise  the  children.  The  Sunday  instruction  which 
he  and  Delamotte  imparted  to  the  children  in  the  parish  of 
Christ  Church,  Savannah,  had  in  it  all  the  best  elements  of 
the  Sunday-school.  The  poorer  children,  who  could  not  attend 
the  parochial  day-schools,  were  helped  to  read ; and  all  were 
taught  not  only  the  Catechism,  but  lessons  drawn  from  the 
sermon  of  the  morning  and  the  study  of  the  word  of  God. 

Raikes  did  no  more  in  Gloucester  than  Wesley  in  Savannah, 
and  not  so  much.  We  quote  from  Raikes’s  own  account  of  his 
Sabbath-school  movement : “ This  conversation  [had  with  the 
Methodist  woman  who  advised  him  Avhat  to  do]  suggested  to 
me  that  it  would  be  at  least  a harmless  attempt,  if  it  were  pro- 
ductive of  no  good,  should  some  little  plan  be  formed  to  check 
the  deplorable  profanation  of  the  Sabbath.  I then  inquired  of 

* The  main  facts  in  this  paper  relating  to  Sabbath-schools  are  told  in  “Wesley 
in  Savannah,”  etc.  They  are  given  here  because  this  paper  would  not  be  complete 
without  them. 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  667 


the  woman  if  there  were  any  decent,  well-disposed  women  of 
the  neighborhood  who  kept  schools  for  teaching  to  read.  I 
presently  was  directed  to  four ; to  them  I applied,  and  made 
an  agreement  with  them  to  receive  as  many  children  as  I 
should  send  upon  the  Sunday,  whom  they  were  to  instruct  in 
reading  and  in  the  Church  Catechism.  For  this  I engaged  to 
pay  them  each  a shilling  for  their  day’s  employment.” 

This  was  the  beginning.  The  children  were  soon  gathered 
and  divided  into  classes,  meeting  in  the  parish  church  on  Sun- 
day morning.  They  who  could  not  read  were  taught  to  read, 
and  all  were  instructed  in  the  Church  Catechism.  Such  is 
Mr.  Eaikes’s  account  of  his  schools.  It  may  be  seen  in  the 
“ Gloucestershii-e  Tracts.” 

Dr.  Stoughton  says  of  these  schools  : “ The  instruction  given 
included  the  elements  of  reading,  writing,  and  even  arithmetic ; 
Bible  instruction,  for  awhile,  was  much  neglected.  Religious 
knowledge  was  chiefly  conveyed  through  Catechisms ; little 
room  was  allowed  for  the  exercise  of  free  religious  conversa- 
tion with  the  pupils,  and  the  warm  play  of  spiritual  affections.” 

Let  us  now  return  to  Wesley’s  method  in  Savannah.  “On 
Saturday,”  he  says,  “ in  the  afternoon,  I catechise  them  all. 
The  same  I do  on  Sunday,  before  the  evening  service.  And 
in  the  church,  immediately  after  the  second  lesson,  a select 
number  of  them  having  repeated  the  Catechism,  and  been  ex- 
amined in  some  part  of  it,  I endeavor  to  explain  at  large,  and 
to  enforce,  that  part,  both  on  them  and  the  congregation.” 

Let  us  see  the  result.  We  quote  again  from  Wesley’s  jour- 
nal : “ May  29.  Being  Whitsunday,  four  of  our  scholars,  after 
having  been  instructed  daily  for  several  weeks,  were,  at  their 
earnest  and  repeated  desire,  admitted  to  the  Lord’s  table.  I 
trust  their  zeal  has  stirred  up  many  to  remember  their  Creator 
in  the  days  of  their  youth,  and  to  redeem  the  time,  even  in 
the  midst  of  an  evil  and  adulterous  generation. 

“ Indeed,  about  this  time  we  observed  the  Spirit  of  God  to 

move  upon  the  minds  of  many  of  the  children.  They  began 
42 


668 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


more  carefully  to  attend  to  the  things  that  were  spoken,  both 
at  home  and  at  church,  and  a remarkable  seriousness  appeared 
in  their  whole  behavior  and  conversation.  Who  knows  hut 
some  of  them  may  ‘ grow  lap  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of 
the  fullness  of  Christ  ? ’ ” 

The  first  Biitish  Bible  Society  that  existed,  “The  Naval  and  Military,” 
was  projected  by  George  Cussons,  and  organized  by  a small  number  of 
his  Methodist  companions.  The  London  Missionary  Society  originated 
in  an  appeal  from  Melville  Horne,  who,  for  some  years,  was  one  of  Wes- 
ley’s itinerant  preachers,  and  then  became  the  successor  of  Fletcher  as 
Vicar  of  JIadeley.  The  Church  Missionary  Society  was  started  by  John 
Venn,  the  son  of  Henry  Venn,  the  Methodist  clergyman.  [Henry  Venn, 
as  we  have  seen,  acknowledged  the  benefit  and  light  he  had  received 
from  Wesley’s  work  and  preaching.]  The  first  Tract  Society  was  formed 
by  John  Wesley  and  Thomas  Coke,  in  1782,  seventeen  years  before  the 
organization  of  the  present  great  Religious  Tract  Society  in  Paternoster 
Row — a society,  by  the  way,  which  was  instituted  chiefiy  by  Rowland 
Hill  and  two  or  three  other  Calvinistic  Methodists.  It  is  believed  that 
the  first  dispensary  that  the  world  ever  had  was  founded  by  Wesley  him- 
self in  connection  with  the  old  Foundery,  in  Moorfields.  The  Strangers’ 
Friend  Society,  paying,  every  year,  from  forty  to  fifty  thousand  visits  to 
the  sick  poor  of  London,  and  relieving  them  as  far  as  possible,  is  an  in- 
stitution to  which  Methodism  gave  birth  in  1785. — Luke  Tyerman. 

The  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  w^as  formed  in  1817,  but  the  first 
Wesleyan  missionaries  [the  italics  are  ours]  who  went  out  under  the  super- 
intendence of  the  Bev.  Dr.  Coke^  entered  the  British  Colonies  in  1786. 
The  Baptist  Missionary  Society  was  established  in  1792;  the  London 
Missionary  Society  in  1795;  and  the  Edinburgh  or  Scottish,  and  the 
Glasgow  Missionary  Societies  in  1796.  . . . The  Clmrch  Missionary 
Society  was  organized  in  the  first  year  of  the  present  century. — Rev. 
William  Ellis:  “History  of  the  London  Missionary  Society.” 

Above  it  is  said  that  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  was 
organized  in  1817.  But  this  was  only  a new  form  to  a society 
which  had  been  in  existence  for  many  years.  The  words  in 
italics,  in  the  above  extract,  show  that  Wesleyan  missionaries, 
as  early  as  1786,  were  preaching  the  gospel  “ in  the  regions 
beyond.”  Earlier  than  that,  in  1773,  Wesley’s  itinerant 


"Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  669 


missionaries  were  proclaiming  tlie  doctrines  of  free  grace  to 
the  negroes  of  the  West  Indies.  And  in  1784 — -eight  years 
before  the  formation  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society — an 
organized  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  was  in  existence.  I 
have  before  me  the  photo-lithograph  of  the  original  document 
entitled,  “ A Plan  of  the  Society  for  the  Establishment  of 
Missions  among  the  Heathens.”  * The  original  is  in  the  pos- 
session of  Mr.  Samuel  D.  Waddy,  Q.  C.,  M.  P.,  of  London  ; 
the  photo-Hthograph  was  kindly  given  me  by  Mr.  Waddy  for 
the  Wesley  Memorial  Volume.  This  document  gives  the 
objects  of  the  Society,  provides  for  annual  meetings  of  its 
members,  appoints  committees,  and  prescribes  their  duties.  It 
also  presents  the  names  of  the  members  with  the  amount 
subscribed  by  each ; and,  on  the  third  page,  it  gives  an  auto- 
graph letter  from  Dr.  Coke  to  Mr.  Fletcher.  It  furnishes 
irrefragable  proof  that  the  Wesleyans,  in  1784,  formed  the 
first  missionary  society  known  to  the  religious  history  of  En- 
gland, for  sending  the  gospel  to  the  heathen.  This  was  fol- 
lowed up,  in  1786,  by  “An  Address  to  the  pious  and  benevo- 
lent, proposing  an  Annual  Subscription  for  the  support  of 
Missionaries  in  the  Highlands  and  adjacent  islands  of  Scotland, 
the  Isles  of  Jersey,  Guernsey,  and  Newfoundland,  the  West 
Indies,  and  the  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  Quebec.”  It 
was  signed  by  Dr.  Coke,  and  contained  a prefatory  letter  from 
Wesley,  who  gave  to  it  his  approval.  In  1787  these  missions 
were  called,  “ Missions  established  by  the  Methodist  Societies ; ” 
and,  at  the  Conference  of  1790,  the  last  over  which  Mr.  Wesley 
presided,  “ a committee  of  nine  preachers,  of  which  Coke  was 
chairman,  was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  this  new  interest.” 
These  facts  give  to  Wesleyan  Methodism — where  it  rightfully 
belongs — the  credit  of  the  first  missionary  society  to  which 
the  Great  Revival  gave  birth.  But  this  one — and  no  less  all 
the  others — owes  its  origin,  if  not  directly  yet  indirectly,  to 
John  Wesley. 


* See  this  document  on  page  490  of  this  volume. 


670 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volltme. 


His  [Wesley’s]  life  stands  out,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  unquestion- 
ably pre-eminent  in  religious  labors  above  that  of  any  other  man  since 
the  apostolic  age. — Abel  Stevens. 

Voltaire  predicted  about  this  time  [while  the  Wesleys  were  at 
Oxford]  that  in  the  next  generation  Christianity  would  be  overthrown 
throughout  the  civilized  world;  these  young  men  defeated  the  prophecy 
and  rendered  the  next  generation  the  most  effective  in  Christian  history 
since  the  days  of  Martin  Luther. — Abel  Stevens. 

The  “ Great  Awakening  ” under  Edwards,  had  not  only  subsided  before 
Whitefield’s  arrival,  but  had  reacted.  Whitefield  restored  it ; and  the 
New  England  Churches  received,  under  his  labors,  an  inspiration  of  zeal 
and  energy  which  has  never  died  out.  [Martin  Luther  said  that,  for 
fifteen  or  sixteen  hundred  years,  the  longest  revival  lasted  only  through  a 
single  generation.  . How  different  the  effects  of  the  “ Great  Revival!"  One 
hundred  and  fifty  years  have  come  and  gone  since  Wesley  inaugurated  the 
Methodist  movement.  That  movement  has  not  “ died  out ; ” its  effects  are 
still  felt  not  only  in  all  Methodist,  but  in  all  the  Protestant  evangelical 
Churches  of  Christendom.]  He  extended  the  revival  from  the  Congre- 
gational Churches  of  the  Eastern,  to  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  the 
Middle  States.  In  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  where  Frelinghuysen, 
Blair,  Rowland,  and  the  two  Tennents  had  been  laboring  with  evangelical 
zeal,  he  was  received  as  a prophet  from  God,  and  it  was  then  that  the 
Presbyterian  Church  took  that  attitude  of  evangelical  power  and  ag- 
gression which  has  ever  since  characterized  it.  These  faithful  men  had 
begun  a humble  ministerial  school  in  a log-cabin  twenty  feet  long,  and 
nearly  as  many  broad.  “The  work  is  of  God,”  said  Whitefield,  “and 
therefore  cannot  come  to  naught.”  The  fame  of  Princeton  has  verified 
his  prediction.  “ Nassau  Hall  received  a Methodistic  baptism  at  its  birth. 
Whitefield  inspired  its  founders,  and  was  honored  by  it  with  the  title  of 
A.  M. ; the  Methodists  in  England  gave  it  funds  ; and  one  of  its  noblest 
presidents  (Davies)  was  a correspondent  of  Wesley  and  honored  him  as 
a restorer  of  the  true  faith.”  Dartmouth  College  arose  from  the  same 
impulse.  It  received  its  chief  early  funds  from  the  British  Methodists, 
and  bears  the  name  of  one  of  their  chief  Calvinistic  associates  [the  Earl 
of  Dartmouth]  whom  Cowper  celebrated  as  “ the  one  who  wore  a cor- 
onet and  prayed.”  Whitefield’s  preaching,  and  especially  the  reading  of 
his  printed  sermons,  in  Virginia  led  to  the  founding  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  that  State,  whence  it  has  extended  to  the  South  and  South- 
west. The  stock  from  which  the  Baptists  of  Virginia  and  those  of 
all  in  the  South  and  South-west  have  sprung,  was  also  Whitefieldian. 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  671 


[Dr.  Stevens  cites  as  one  of  his  authorities,  Benedict’s  “History  of 
the  Baptists.”]  The  founder  of  the  Eree-will  Baptists  of  the  United 
States  was  converted  under  the  last  preaching  of  Whitefleld. — Abel 
Stevens. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Wesley,  which  occurred  March  2,  1791,  deeply  af- 
fected the  Methodists  in  America,  as  well  as  in  England,  They  felt  as  a 
large  and  affectionate  family  feels  in  the  loss  of  a father. — Bishop 
Kobekt  Paine  : “ Life  of  M’Kendree.” 

I consider  him  as  the  most  influential  mind  of  the  last  century — the 
man  who  will  have  produced  the  greatest  effects,  centuries,  or  perhaps 
millenniums  hence,  if  the  present  race  of  men  should  continue  so  long. — 
Robert  Southey. 

I venture  to  avow  it  as  my  conviction,  that  either  Christian  faith 
is  what  Wesley  here  describes,  or  there  is  no  proper  meaning  in  the 
word. — Coleridge. 

It  was  not  a masterly  sermon,  [one  of  Wesley’s  sermons,  at  Aber- 
deen,] yet  none  but  a master  could  have  preached  it. — Beattie. 

Thousands  who  never  heard  of  Fontenoy  or  Walpole,  continue  to 
follow  the  precepts  and  to  venerate  the  name  of  John  Wesley. — Earl 
Stanhope. 

The  “Life  of  Wesley”  [Southey’s]  will  probably  live.  Defective  as 
it  is,  it  contains  the  only  popular  account  of  a most  remarkable  moral 
revolution,  and  of  a man  whose  eloquence  and  logical  acuteness  might 
have  made  him  eminent  in  literature,  whose  genius  for  government  was 
not  inferior  to  that  of  Richelieu,  and  who,  whatever  his  errors  may 
have  been,  devoted  all  his  powers,  in  deflance  of  obloquy  and  derision, 
to  what  he  sincerely  considered  as  the  highest  good  of  his  species. — 
Lord  Macaulay. 

John  Wesley  and  Cowper’s  friend,  John  Newton,  were  both  presbyters 
of  this  Church,  [the  Church  of  England.]  Both  were  men  of  ability. 
Both  we  believe  to  have  been  men  of  rigid  integrity ; men  who  would 
not  have  subscribed  a confession  of  faith  which  they  disbelieved,  for  the 
richest  bishopric  in  the  empire. — Lord  Macaulay. 

We  have  read  books  called  Histories  of  England  under  the  Reign 
of  George  II.,  in  which  the  rise  of  Methodism  is  not  even  mentioned. 
A hundred  years  hence  this  breed  of  authors  will,  we  hope,  be  extinct. 
— Lord  Macaulay. 

To  the  Theotine  order  a still  higher  interest  belongs.  Its  great 
object  was  the  same  with  that  of  our  early  Methodists,  namely,  to  supply 
the  deficiencies  of  the  parochial  clergy.  The  Church  of  Rome,  wiser 


672 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


than  the  Church  of  England,  gave  every  countenance  to  the  good  work. 
— Lohd  Macaulay. 

Under  two  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
Wliitefield,  the  first  of  theological  orators,  and  Wesley,  the  first  of  the- 
ological statesmen,  there  was  originated  a great  system  of  religion  which 
bore  the  same  relation  to  the  Church  of  England  that  the  Church  of 
England  bore  to  the  Church  of  Rome. — Buckle. 

The  breath  of  liberty  has  wafted  their  messages  to  the  masses  of 
the  people;  encouraged  them  to  collect  the  white  and  negro,  slave  and 
master,  in  the  greenwood,  for  counsel  on  divine  love  and  the  full  assur- 
ance of  grace ; and  carried  their  consolations  and  songs  and  prayers  to 
the  farthest  cabins  in  the  wilderness. — Bancroft. 

No  Church  in  the  country  [the  United  States]  has  so  successfully 
engaged  in  the  cause  of  education  as  the  Methodist  Church;  no  one 
that,  during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  has  done  more  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  cause. — Edward  Everett. 

In  the  Methodist  economy,  as  well  as  in  the  zeal,  the  devoted  piety, 
and  the  efficiency  of  its  ministry,  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  elements 
in  the  religious  history  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  one  of  the  firm- 
est pillars  of  their  civil  and  political  institutions. — Baird;  “Religion 
in  America.” 

Wesley  had  a genius  for  godliness. — Matthew  Arnold. 

The  revival  took  efiect  on  distant  circles  which  certainly  seemed  out- 
side of  the  Methodist  movement,  but  which  yet,  assuredly,  belonged  to 
it;  the  Clapham  sect,  for  instance,  with  all  its  consequences^  [the  italics 
are  ours,]  so  pleasantly  described  by  Sir  James  Stephen  in  his  “Essays 
on  Ecclesiastical  Biography.” — E.  Paxton  Hood. 

The  purest,  noblest,  most  saintly  clergyman  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
whose  whole  life  was  passed  in  the  sincere  and  loyal  effort  to  do  good. 
— Mr.  CuETBis:  “Bampton  Lectures  for  1871.” 

I remember  his  face  well.  He  was  a very  old  man,  and  had  very  long 
white  hair ; his  voice  was  very  soft  and  beautiful,  not  like  any  voice  I 
had  ever  heard  before.  I was  a little  girl,  and  scarcely  knew  any  thing, 
and  this  old  man  seemed  to  me  such  a different  sort  of  man  from  any 
body  I had  ever  seen  before,  that  I thought  he  had  perhaps  come  down 
from  the  sky  to  preach  to  us,  and  I said,  “ Aunt,  will  he  go  back  to  the 
sky  to-night,  like  the  picture  in  the  Bible  ? ” That  man  of  God  was 
Mr.  Wesley,  who  spent  his  life  in  doing  what  our  blessed  Lord  did — i 
preaching  the  gospel  to  the  poor. — Dinah  [Evans]  Morris:  in  “Adam 
Bede.” 


Wesley  ai^d  the  Methodist  Movement.  673 


It  was  a great  open  space  called  Moorfields.  Thousands  of  dirty, 
ragged  men  and  women  were  standing  listening  to  a preacher  in  a 
clergyman’s  gown.  We  were  obliged  to  stop  while  the  crowd  made  way 
for  us.  At  first  I thought  it  must  be  the  same  I heard  near  Bristol,  but 
when  we  came  nearer  I saw  it  was  quite  a different  looking  man ; a small 
man,  rather  thin,  with  the  neatest  wig,  and  fine,  sharply-cut  features,  a 
mouth  firm  enough  for  a general,  and  a bright,  steady  eye,  which  seemed 
to  command  the  crowd. 

Uncle  Henderson  said,  “It  is  John  Wesley.” 

His  manner  was  very  calm,  not  impassioned  like  Mr.  Whitefield’s ; but 
the  people  seemed  quite  as  much  moved. 

Mr.  Whitefield  looked  as  if  he  were  pleading  with  the  people  to 
escape  from  a danger  he  saw  but  they  could  not,  and  would  draw  them 
to  heaven  in  spite  of  themselves.  Mr.  Wesley  did  not  appear  so  much 
to  plead  as  to  speak  with  authority.  Mr.  Whitefield  seemed  to  throw 
his  whole  soul  into  the  peril  of  his  hearers.  Mr.  Wesley  seemed  to  rest 
with  his  whole  soul  on  the  truth  he  spoke,  and,  by  the  force  of  his  own 
calm  conviction,  to  make  every  one  feel  that  what  he  said  was  true.  If 
his  hearers  were  moved,  it  was  not  with  the  passion  of  the  preacher ; it 
was  with  the  bare  reality  of  the  things  he  said. 

But  they  were  moved  indeed.  No  wandering  eye  was  there.  Many 
were  weeping,  some  were  sobbing  as  if  their  hearts  would  break, 
and  many  more  were  gazing  as  if  they  would  not  weep,  nor  stir,  nor 
breathe,  lest  they  should  lose  a word. — Diaky  op  Mistress  Kitty 
Teevyeyan. 

His  sole  object  was  to  bring  back  the  Church  to  a pure  and  holy  life, 
and  to  save  the  degraded  and  neglected. — Prof.  C.  W.  Bennett,  D.D.  ; 
in  “Appleton’s  American  Cyclopaedia.” 

Wesley anism  was,  in  many  respects,  by  far  the  most  important  phe- 
nomenon of  the  eighteenth  century. — Leslie  Stephen:  “History  of 
English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.” 

Although  the  career  of  the  elder  Pitt,  and  the  splendid  victories  by 
land  and  sea  that  were  won  during  his  ministry,  form  unquestionably 
the  most  dazzling  episodes  in  the  reign  of  George  II.,  they  must  yneld,  I 
think,  in  real  importance,  to  that  religious  revolution  which  shortly  be- 
fore had  been  begun  in  England  by  the  preaching  of  the  Wesleys  and 
Whitefield.  The  creation  of  a large,  powerful,  and  active  sect,  extend- 
ing over  both  hemispheres,  and  numbering  many  millions  of  souls,  was 
but  one  of  its  consequences.  It  also  exercised  a profound  and  lasting 
influence  upon  the  spirit  of  the  Established  Church,  upon  the  amount 


674 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


and  distribution  of  the  moral  forces  of  the  nation,  and  even  upon  the 
course  of  its  political  history.  — Lkckt  : “ England  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century.” 

It  undoubtedly  emancipated  great  numbers  from  the  fear  of  death, 
and  imparted  a warmer  tone  to  the  devotion,  and  a greater  energy  to  the 
philanthropy,  of  every  denomination  both  in  England  and  the  Colonies. 
— Lkckt. 

The  Methodist  movement  was  a purely  religious  one.  All  explana- 
tions which  ascribe  it  to  the  ambition  of  its  leaders,  or  to  merely  intel- 
lectual causes,  are  at  variance  wdth  the  facts  in  the  case. — Leckt. 

They  and  their  colleagues  [the  leaders  of  the  so-called  Evangelical 
party  in  the  Church]  gradually  changed  the  whole  spirit  of  the  English 
Church.  They  infused  into  it  a new  fire  and  passion  of  devotion, 
kindled  a spirit  of  fervent  philanthropy,  raised  the  standard  of  clerical 
duty,  and  completely  altered  the  whole  tone  and  tendency  of  the  preach- 
ing of  its  ministers.  . . . But  ieyond  all  other  men,  [the  italics  are  ours,] 
it  was  John  Wesley  to  whom  this  worh  was  due. — Leckt. 

Like  Whitefield,  he  had  the  power  of  riveting  the  attention  of  au- 
diences of  eight  thousand,  ten  thousand,  and  sometimes  even  twenty 
thousand  souls. — Leckt. 

His  administrative  pow'ers  were  probably  still  greater  than  his  power 
as  a preacher.  Few  tasks  are  more  difficult  than  the  organization  into 
a permanent  body  of  half-educated  men.  . . . Wesley  accomplished  the 
task  with  an  admirable  mixture  of  tact,  firmness,  and  gentleness ; and 
the  skill  with  which  he  founded  the  Methodist  organization  is  suffi- 
ciently shown  by  its  later  history. — Leckt. 

My  brother  Wesley  acted  wisely.  The  souls  that  were  awakened 
under  his  ministry  he  joined  in  class,  and  thus  preserved  the  fruits  of 
his  labor.  This  I neglected,  and  my  people  are  a rope  of  sand.— George 
Whitefield  to  John  Pool. 

Nothing  can  be  more  unjust  than  to  attribute  to  him  [John  Wesley] 
the  ambition  of  a schismatic,  or  the  subversive  instincts  of  a revolu- 
tionist.— Leckt. 

His  many-sided  activity  was  displayed  in  the  rnost  various  fields,  and 
his  keen  eye  was  open  to  every  form  of  abuse.  . . . He  was  among  the 
first  to  reprobate  the  horrors  of  the  slave-trade,  to  call  attention  to  the 
scandalous  condition  of  the  jails,  to  make  collections  for  relieving  the 
miserable  destitution  of  the  French  prisoners  of  war.  He  supported 
with  the  whole  weight  of  his  influence  the  Sunday-school  movement. 
And  he  made  praiseworthy  efforts  to  put  down  among  his  followers  that 


Wesley  a]s^d  the  Methodist  Movement.  675 


political  corruption  which  was,  perhaps,  the  most  growing  vice  of  En- 
glish society. — Leckt. 

They  [the  Methodists]  have  already  far  outnumbered  every  other  Non- 
conformist body  in  England,  and  every  other  religious  body  in  the 
United  States,  and  they  are  probably  destined  largely  to  Increase ; while 
the  influence  of  the  movement  transformed  for  a time  the  whole  spirit  of 
the  Established  Church,  and  has  been  more  or  less  felt  in  every  Prot- 
estant community  speaking  the  Englisli  tongue. — Leckt. 

Thus  he  [John  Wesley]  threw  aside,  boldly  and  unhesitatingly,  the 
dreamy  follies  of  the  Moravians,  and  he  took  a noble  and  admirable 
stand  on  the  doctrine  of  the  fullness,  freeness,  and  universality  of  the 
grace  of  God. — Q.  G.  Peeet,  M.A.,  Canon  of  Lincoln  and  Rector  of 
Waddington;  “A  History  of  the  Cliurch  of  England.” 

This  led  to  the  separation  of  the  Wesleys  from  Whitefield,  who  had 
been  attracted  by  the  writings  of  the  older  Puritans  to  adopt  Calvinistic 
views.  Whitefleld  wrote  angrily  and  feebly  against  Wesle}',  who,  a far 
abler  man,  magnanimously  spared  him.  There  was  still  love  between 
them,  though  a divergence  in  sentiment. — Perrt. 

He  [John  Wesley]  disliked  separation  from  the  Church;  he  constantly 
spoke  in  the  strongest  way  against  it,  but  he  did  nothing  to  hinder  it. 
He  allowed  the  machine  which  he  had  set  in  motion  to  take  its  course. 
He  saw,  probably,  that  that  course  was  inevitable,  and  though  he  perhaps 
salved  his  own  conscience  by  his  protests  against  Dissent,  yet  if  Meth- 
odism was  not  to  be  had  without  Dissent,  he  wms  prepared  to  accejrt  it 
at  this  price.  By  and  by  he  brings  himself  to  the  distinctly  schismatic 
act  of  performing  a mock  consecration  of  bishops  [the  italics  are  ours] 
for  America. — Perry. 

They  [the  Wesleys]  brought  out  with  great  force  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  on  the  doctrines  of  grace,  and  showed  to  many  of  the  clergy  the 
meaning  of  their  formularies  w’hich  they  had  not  before  apprehended. 
. . . They  led  men  to  examine  and  \veigh  subjective  truths  which  had 
been  long  almost  entirely  overlooked,  and  to  understand  more  fully  the 
language  of  Scripture  on  these  topics. — Perry. 

The  revival  began  in  a small  knot  of  Oxford  students.  . . . White- 
field,  a servitor  of  Pembroke  College,  was  above  all  others  the  preacher 
of  the  revival.  . . . Charles  Wesley,  a Christ  Church  student,  came  to 
add  sweetness  to  this  sudden  and  startling  light.  He  was  the  “ sweet- 
singer  ” of  the  movement.  His  hymns  expressed  the  fiery  convictions  of 
its  converts  in  lines  so  chaste  and  beautiful  that  its  more  extravagant 
features  disappeared.  . . . 


676 


The  Weslet  Memorial  Volume. 


But  it  was  his  elder  brother,  John  Wesley,  who  embodied  in  himself 
not  this  or  that  side  of  the  vast  movement,  but  the  very  movement 
itself.  ...  In  power  as  a preacher  he  stood  next  to  Whitefield  ; as  a 
hymn  writer  he  stood  second  to  his  brother  Charles.  But  while  combin- 
ing in  some  degree  the  excellences  of  either,  he  possessed  qualities  in 
which  both  were  utterly  deficient  — an  indefatigable  industry,  a cool 
judgment,  a command  over  others,  a faculty  of  organization,  a singular 
union  of  patience  and  moderation  with  an  imperious  ambition,  which 
marked  him  as  a ruler  of  men.  He  had,  besides,  a learning  and  skill 
in  writing  which  no  other  of  the  Methodists  possessed.  He  was  older 
than  any  of  his  colleagues  at  the  start  of  the  movement,  and  he  outlived 
them  all. — J.  R.  Green,  M.A.,  Examiner  in  the  School  of  Modern  His- 
tory, Oxford:  “A  Short  History  of  the  English  People.” 

But  the  Methodists  themselves  were  the  least  result  of  the  Methodist 
revival.  Its  action  upon  the  Church  broke  the  lethargy  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  “ Evangelical  ” movement,  which  found  representatives  like 
Newton  and  Cecil  within  the  pale  of  the  Establishment,  made  the  fox- 
hunting parson  and  the  absentee  rector  at  last  impossjjjle.  In  Walpole’s 
day  the  English  clergy  were  the  idlest  and  most  lifeless  in  the  world. 
In  our  own  time  no  body  of  religious  ministers  surpasses  them  in  piety, 
in  philanthropic  energy,  or  in  popular  regard. — J.  R.  Green. 

But  the  mischiefs  [resulting,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  believes,  almost  in  a 
general  paralysis  — at  the  time  Wesley  appeared  — of  the  religious  life, 
both  in  the  Church  and  in  the  Nonconformist  bodies  of  England]  at 
which  I now  very  slightly  glance  were,  if  not  confined  to  the  Church, 
much  more  general,  intense,  and  scandalous  within  its  borders  than  be- 
yond them.  It  was  well,  therefore,  that  from  within  the  precinct 
where  the  darkness  lay  the  thickest  the  light  should  first  and  most 
brilliantly  arise. — Rt.  Hon.  Wm.  E.  Gladstone  : in  the  “ British  Quarterly 
Review,”  July,  1879. 

These  last  words,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  refer  principally,  though  not 
entirely,  to  John  Wesley.  I make  no  attempt  in  this  paper  to  follow  the 
career  of  that  extraordinary  man,  whose  life  and  acts  have  taken  their 
place  in  the  religious  history  not  only  of  England,  but  of  Christendom. 
I only  observe,  first,  that  the  course  of  Wesley  takes  its  origin  from  the 
bosom  of  devout  but  high  Anglicanism,  in  which,  as  a youth,  he  was 
bred,  and  which  long  and  rather  obstinately,  though  varyingly,  held  its 
ground  within  his  interior  mind,  in  despite  of  circumstances  the  most 
adverse.  Secondly,  that  with  this  origin  it  should  still,  perhaps,  be  re- 
garded as  having  given  the  main  impulse  out  of  which  sprang  the  Evan- 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  677 


gelical  movement.  Thirdly,  that  while  it  imparted  the  main  impulse, 
it  did  not  stamp  upon  that  movement  its  specific  character.  The  prin- 
cipal share  of  the  parentage  was  not  represented  in  the  particular  con- 
tour of  the  features.  Probably  that  which  Wesley  did  not  supply  to 
it  is  to  be  traced  in  a great  degree,  yet  by  an  indirect  line,  to  White- 
field.  It  would  seem  rather  as  if  the  Evangelical  Succession,  as  Sir  J. 
Stephen  has  called  it  in  his  “ Essays,”  may  more  directly  have  found  its 
fountain-head  in  another  quarter.  Some  rivers  spring  from  only  a group 
of  pools ; and  there  were  a small  number  of  clergymen,  sporadically  and 
very  thinly  distributed  over  the  broad  surface  of  tlie  Church  of  England, 
whose  names  have  been  handed  down  to  us  in  conjunction  with  the  rare 
phenomenon  of  the  profession  of  high  Calvinism,  or  of  a leaning  more  or 
less  pronounced  toward  it.  Of  these  the  best  known  are  Hervey,  Ber- 
ridge,  Romaine,  and  Toplady.  Perhaps  they  are  to  be  regarded  as, 
along  with  Whitefield,  the  fathers  of  the  Evangelical  school. — Mr. 
Gladstone. 

It  ought,  perhaps,  to  be  remarked,  that  in  an  interesting  historic 
sketch  the  Rev.  Canon  Garbett  has  traced  the  origin  of  the  Evangelical 
movement,  and  assigns  it  to  Mr.  Law  and  his  “Serious  Call  to  a Holy 
Life.”  But  such  an  ascription  seems  to  me  incorrect.  There  are  no  dis- 
tinctive relations,  that  I can  find,  between  this  movement  and  the  non- 
juring  party  to  which  Law  belonged;  and  the  large  and  prominent  de- 
velopment of  the  doctrinal  element  in  the  Evangelical  writings  is  out  of 
all  proportion  to  its  retired  position  in  the  works,  so  far  as  I know  them, 
of  Law.  This  succession  is  rather  to  be  found  in  Bisliop  Wilson,  in 
Jones  of  Nayland,  and  in  Hook  or  Keble  of  our  time. — Mr.  Gladstone. 

It  may  not  be  unreasonable,  then,  to  regard  the  group  of  clergymen 
whom  I have  named  as  the  spiritual  fathers  of  the  Evangelical  school. 
The  deep  and  sharp  lines  of  their  ultra- Cahinism,  however,  were  softened 
in  their  successors,  as,  for  example,  in  Thomas  Scott,  and  gradually  disap- 
peared. [The  italics  in  this  paragraph  are  ours.]  That  scheme  of  doc- 
trine has  more  than  once  made  its  appearance  in  the  Church  of  England, 
as,  for  example,  in  the  notorious  Lambeth  Articles,  hut  always  with  the  note 
of  sterility,  the  marie  of  the  hybrid,  upon  it.  Elsewhere  it  has  found  more 
congenial  soils,  and  has  been  associated  with  great  results ; but  within  the 
Anglican  precinct  it  has  always  been  a transient  phenomenon.  The  points  in 
which  the  Evangelical  school  permanently  differed  from  the  older 
and  traditional  Anglicanism  were  those  of  the  Church,  the  sacraments, 
and  the  forensic  idea  of  justification.  They  are  not,  in  my  view,  its 
strong  points,  and  I do  not  mean  to  dwell  upon  them.  Its  main  char- 


678 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Voluivie. 


acteristic  was  of  a higher  order,  [which  characteristic  it  received  from 
John  Wesley,  “principally,”  if  not  “entirely.”]  It  was  a strong,  system- 
atic, outspolcen,  and  determined  reaction  against  the  prevailing  standards 
hath  of  life  and  preaching.  It  aimed  at  bringing  iacJc,  on  a large  scale,  and 
liy  an  aggressive  movement,  the  Cross,  and  all  that  the  Gross  essentially  im- 
plies, both  into  the  teaching  of  the  clergy,  and  into  the  lives  as  well  of  the 
clergy  as  of  the  laity.  The  preaching  of  tlie  Gospel  became  afterward  a 
cant  plirase ; but  that  the  preaching  of  the  Gos2>el  a hundred  years  ago 
had  disappeared,  not  by  denial  but  by  lapse,  from  the  majority  of  An- 
glican pulpits,  is,  I fear,  in  large  measure,  an  historic  truth.  To  bring 
it  back  again  was  the  aim  and  work  of  the  Evangelical  reformers  in  the 
sphere  of  the  teaching  function.  Whether  they  preached  Christ  in  the 
best  manner  may  be  another  question  ; but  of  this  there  is  now,  and  can 
be,  little  question— that  they  preached  Christ;  they  preached  Christ 
largely  and  fervently  where,  as  a rule,  he  was  but  little  and  but  coldly 
preached  before.  And  who  is  there  that  will  not  say  from  his  heart, 
“I  therein  do  rejoice,  yea,  and  will  rejoice?”— Mr.  Gladstone. 

Much  that  has  become  characteristic  of  Evangelic  Christianity  had  its 
origin  in  Lady  Huntingdon’s  drawing-room.  . . . The  fact  of  this  relig- 
ious transmission,  which  connects  the  venerated  names  of  Venn,  Hewton, 
Scott,  Milner,  and  other’s  in  no  very  remote  manner  with  the  founders 
of  Methodism,  might,  to  a reader  of  its  historjq  seem  too  conspicuous  to 
be  called  in  question ; nor  does  it  very  clearly  appear  what  those  manly 
and  Christian-like  feelings  are  which  should  prompt  any  parties  at 
this  time  to  deny  it.  A wiry  task  surely  is  it  which  those  undertake 
who  labor,  thread  by  thread,  to  disengage  the  modern  Episcopal  Evan- 
gelical body  from  the  ties  of  filial  relationshijr  to  Wesley,  Whitefield, 
and  their  colleagues. — Isaac  Taylor. 

That  great  body  of  the  Church  of  England  which,  assuming  the  title 
of  Evangelical,  has  been  refused  that  of  Orthodoxy,  may  ‘trace  their 
spiritual  genealogy  by  regular  descent  from  Whitefield.  . . . The  con- 
sanguinity is  attested  by  historical  records,  and  by  the  strongest  family 
resemblance.  The  quarterings  of  Whitefield  are  entitled  to  a conspicu- 
ous place  in  the  Evangelical  escutcheon,  and  they  who  bear  it  are  not 
wise  in  being  ashamed  of  the  blazonry. — Sir  James  Stephen;  “Essays 
on  Ecclesiastical  Biography.” 

But  let  us  look  into  the  facts  of  the  case.  Has  the  Evangelical  body, 
either  in  the  eighteenth  or  the  present  century,  ever  denied  that  White- 
field  and  the  Wesleys,  and  their  coadjutors,  were  pioneers  in  the  great 
movement  which  they  took  up ; that  those  good  men  bore  the  burden 


"Wesley  aistd  the  Methodist  Movejient.  679 


and  heat  of  the  day,  and  blunted  the  keen  edge  of  prejudice,  which, 
would  otherwise  have  assailed  tTiem  more  vehemently  than  it  did? 
Surely  not.  . . . But  they  apprehend  that  to  trace  back  their  genealogy 
to  him  [Whitefield]  would  be  to  abandon  what  they  consider,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  to  be  the  strength  of  their  position.  They  trace  back  their 
genealogy  to  Peter,  and  Paul,  and  John ; and  afterward,  in  a direct  line, 
to  Augustine,  and  Anselm,  and  Wiclif,  and  Hooper,  and  Jewell,  and 
Hooker.  They  think  that  “ much” — yea,  most — “of  what  is  character- 
istic of  Evangelical  Christianity  ” had  its  origin,  not  in  Lady  Huntingdon’s 
drawing-room,  but  in  a far  less  aristocratic  apartment,  even  in  the  upper- 
room  at  Jerusalem,  “where  the  disciples  were  assembled  for  fear  of 
the  Jews.” — Ovekton:  Abbey  and  Overton’s  ” Church  of  England  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century.” 

Mr.  Overton  does  not  answer  Isaac  Taylor  and  Sir  James 
Stephen.  They  had  reference  to  the  joint  influence  of  Wesley 
and  Whitefield  on  the  piety  and  zeal,  and  to*  the  special  influ- 
ence of  Whitefield’s  Calvinism,  on  the  theology  of  the  Evangel- 
ical party.  So  far  as  Peter,  and  Paul,  and  Augustine,  and 
Anselm,  and  all  the  rest,  and  the  upper-room  at  Jerusalem,  are 
concerned,  W esley  and  Whitefield  could  trace  their  “ genealogy  ” 
from  the  same  source,  and  by  the  same  line.  All  that  Mr. 
Overton  says  about  the  succession  may  be  true,  and  yet  it  may 
be  also  true,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  writes,  that  Wesley  has  “the 
principal  share  of  the  parentage,”  and  Whitefield  “ the  particu- 
lar contour  of  the  features.”  Indeed,  all  tliat  Mr.  Gladstone,  and 
Isaac  Taylor,  and  Sir  James  Stephen  mean,  is  fully  admitted,  as 
we  shall  see,  both  by  Mr.  Abbey  and  Mr.  Overton  in  their  truly 
great  and  noble  contribution  to  the  ecclesiastical  history  of 
England. 

All  honor  to  men  like  Whitefield,  who,  by  their  burning  words,  their 
inexhaustible  energy,  and  their  nobly  devoted  lives,  helped  the  party  to 
raise  its  head  again.  Such  credit  the  later  Evangelieal  party  would  gladly 
have  accorded  to  Whitefield,  but  they  rightly  demurred  to  the  acknowl- 
edgment that  he  was  in  any  sense  their  founder. — Overton. 

In  the  senses  Mr.  Overton  evidently  has  in  mind,  Wesleyan  s 
and  all  Methodists  demur  to  the  acknowledgment  that  even 


680 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volhme, 


Mr.  Wesley  is  their  founder.  For  they  go  hack  of  Peter  and 
Panl,  and  the  upper-room  at  Jerusalem,  and  claim  that  their 
sole  Founder  is  Jesus  Christ,  the  Eoek  of  Ages.  But  see  what 
Mr,  Overton  admits : 

The  difficulty — indeed,  the  impossibility  [the  italics  are  ours] — of  dis- 
entangling Evangelicalism  from  Methodism  in  the  early  phases  of  both, 
confronts  us  at  once  when  we  begin  to  consider  the  cases  of  individ- 
U al  S. — O VEKTON. 

This  “difficulty,”  or  “impossibility,”  rather,  Mr.  Overton 
will  fully  establish  before  we  are  done  with  this  paper. 

It  [the  Calvinistic  controversy]  taught  the  later  Evangelical  school 
to  guard  more  carefully  their  Calvinistic  views  against  the  perversions 
of  Antinomianism. — Overton. 

Once  [Henry  Venn,]  when  asked  about  a young  minister,  whether  he 
was  a Calvinist  or  Arminian,  replied:  “I  really  do  not  know;  he  is  a 
sincere  disciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  is  of  infinitely  more 
importance  than  his  being  a disciple  of  Calvin  or  Arminius.”  In  short, 
he  was  what  was  called  a “moderate  Calvinist,”  a term  which  was  much 
caviled  at  in  the  hot  days  of  the  Calvinistic  controversy,  but  which 
really  expressed  the  form  which  the  Calvinism  of  the  Evangelical  school 
ultimately  assumed. — Overton. 

While  agreeing  thoroughly  with  Methodist  doctrines,  (we  may  waive 
the  vexed  question  of  Calvinism,]  they  thoroughly  disapproved  of  the 
Methodist  practice  of  itinerancy,  which  they  regarded  as  a mark  of 
insubordination,  a breach  of  Church  order,  and  an  unwarrantable  inter- 
ference with  the  parochial  system. — Overton. 

Not  that  John  Wesley  ever  desired  to  upset  the  parochial  system. 
From  first  to  last  he  consistently  maintained  Ms  position,  [the  italics  are 
ours,]  that  his  worTc  was  not  to  supplant,  hut  to  supplement,  the  ordinary  worh 
of  the  Church.  This  supplementary  agency  formed  so  important  a factor 
in  the  Evangelical  revival,  and  its  arrangement  was  so  characteristic 
of  John  Wesley,  that  a few  words  on  the  subject  seem  necessary. — 
Overton. 

Here  we  experience  “ tbe  difficulty  of  disentangling  evangel- 
icalism from  Methodism,”  as  applied  “ to  the  cases  of  individ- 
uals.” The  “ fathers  ” of  the  Evangelical  movement,  says  Mr. 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Move^ient.  681 


Overton,  were  Hervey,  Grimsliaw,  Berridge,  Boinaine,  and 
Yenn.  Every  one  of  these,  except  Hervey,  was  in  itinerant 
labors  and  in  out-door  preaching  almost  as  abundant  as  Wesley 
and  Whitefield. 

These  divines  [the  Evangelicals]  were  mostly  Oalvinistic,  and  so  [on 
that  account]  stood  apart  [separated]  from  the  Methodists,  [the  Wesley- 
ans.] — Perry:  “A  History  of  the  Church  of  England.” 

They  [the  Evangelicals]  gave  no  prominent  place  to  the  sacraments 
and  ordinances  of  the  Church. — Perry. 

Thus  it  seems  that  the  Evangelical  party — the  party  historic- 
ally distinguished  from  Wesleyan  Methodism — was  distin- 
guished from  Mr.  Wesley  mainly  by  the  high  Calvinism  of  its 
first  leaders.  But  even  this  divergence  became  less  distinct ; 
and,  in  time,  altogether  disappeared.  Its  Bomaines  and  Top- 
ladys  gave  place  to  its  Cecils  and  Scotts,  who  were  themselves 
succeeded  by  those  in  whom  scarcely  any  traces  of  the  old  Cal- 
Yunism  remained.  If  this  be  so,  is  it  not  true  that  it  was  John 
Wesley  who  drove  (what  Mr.  Gladstone  calls  “the  hybrid”) 
Calvinism  out  of  the  Church  of  England  pulpits  ? 

In  what  else  did  Mr.  Wesley  seriously  differ  from  the  earlier 
leaders  of  the  Evangelical  party,  or  their  successors,  “ the  good 
men  of  Clapham,”  who  met  at  the  princely  mansion  of  the 
Thorntons,  to  discuss  philanthropic  reforms,  and  devise  larger 
plans  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  ? Was  it  in  his  Church- 
manship? — Hot  in  that;  unless  it  was,  as  some  will  assert,  that 
he  was  more  of  a Churchman  than  they.  Hearly  all,  if  not  all. 
Church  of  England  writers  claim  that  he  was  a loyal  son  of  the 
Church  down  to  his  latest  breath.  In  the  opinion  of  some  he 
was  such  a Churchman  that,  if  he  had  lived  to  see  these  latter 
days,  he  would  have  anticipated  the  movements  of  tractarianism, 
and  been  the  earliest  and  most  pronounced  leader  of  modern 
ritualism.  Wesley  would  have  found  many  of  the  Evangelical 
party  to  keep  him  company : Manning  and  Hewman,  once  its 
brightest  lights,  would  have  been  his  disciples  and  collaboratoi’s, 
at  least  for  a time,  and  perhaps  always ; for  he  might  have  saved 


682 


The  Wesley  Me^iorial  Volume. 


them  from  Rome.  “ Had  the  young  Fellow  of  Lincoln,”  writes 
Miss  Jnlia  Wedgwood,  “died  in  his  thirtieth  year,  we  can 
imagine  that  the  tradition  which  might  have  preserved  to  Ox- 
ford the  memory  of  the  little  Society  of  which  he  was  the 
head,  would  have  presented  itself  as  a dim  foreshadowing  of 
the  religious  movement  connected  with  that  university  in  our 
own  day.”  Was  it  in  his  views  of  ordination  ? was  it  because 
he  held  that  presbyters  and  bishops  are  of  one  order? — Stil- 
lingfleet  and  Lord  King,  and  many  others,  both  of  the  evangel- 
ical and  the  traditional  Anglicans,  past  and  present,  have  held 
the  same  opinion.  Was  it  in  his  plan  of  itinerant  preaching? — 
The  fathers  of  the  Evangelical  party : Venn,  Berridge,  Romaine, 
Grimshaw,  and  Toplady,  long  vied  with  Wesley  in  itinerant 
labors  and  open-air  preaching.  Grimshaw  was  Wesley’s 
“assistant,”  and  had  charge  of  a Methodist  circuit;  John 
Newton  in  a letter  to  Wesley  ajjologized,  on  account  of  the 
feeble  state  of  his  health,  for  not  being  an  itinerant  preacher. 
Was  it  in  Wesley’s  plan  of  lay-preaching? — There  is  no  one 
who  believes  that  John  Wesley  was  opposed  to  the  pai’ochial 
system  of  the  Established  Church.  The  ablest  Church  writers 
of  the  present  day  tell  us  that  Mr.  Wesley  only  intended  to 
supplement  the  labors  of  the  parish  incumbent.  In  sending 
forth  laymen  to  read  and  expound  the  Holy  Scriptures,  what 
did  Mr.  Wesley  more  than  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  assem- 
bled at  Lambeth,  in  1866,  when  they  restored  to  the  Church 
the  “ Order  of  Readers,”  and  afterward,  by  the  laying  on  of 
their  apostolic  hands,  consecrated  them  to  the  work  of  reading 
and  expounding  the  word  of  God  ? W as  it  in  W esley’s  insubor- 
dination to  Episcopal  authority  ? — Several  of  the  fathers  of 
Evangelicalism  were  in  iisdem  armis — in  the  same  condemna- 
tion. Nor  have  their  successors  been  entirely  free  from  the 
charge  ; not  if  Mr.  Gladstone  reports  them  correctly  when  he 
tells  us,  that  they  have  been  “ in  some  sense  rebellious,”  and 
that  in  their  scheme  there  has  been  “ a latent  antagonism  to 
express  and  important  portions  of  the  authoritative  documents 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  683 


of  tie  Churci  of  England.”  Was  it  in  his  class-meetings,  and 
band-meetings,  and  love- feasts  ? — Not  in  them ; for  some  of  the 
Evangelical  fathers  led  Wesley’s  class-meetings,  and  conducted 
Wesley’s  love-feasts.  There  are  episcopal  writers  who  claim 
that  Wesley  by  these  only  restored  what  was  of  scriptural 
authority,  and  common  to  the  earlier  Church  and  to  primitive 
usage.  Was  it  that  Wesley  would  not  have  been  in  sympathy 
with  their  parliamentary  reforms  and  evangelical  work  ? — If 
not,  it  would  have  been  because  he  was  far  in  advance  of  their 
foremost.  “ His  many-sided  activity,”  writes  Mr.  Lecky,  “ was 
displayed  in  the  most  various  fields,  and  his  keen  eye  open  to 
every  form  of  abuse.”  Now  he  laments  “the  glaring  irregu- 
larities of  political  representation ; ” now  he  assails  “ the  costly 
diffusiveness  of  English  legal  documents  ; ” now  he  is  “ among 
the  first  to  reprobate  the  horrors  of  the  slave-trade  ; ” and  now 
he  seeks  “ to  put  down  political  corruption,  the  most  growing 
vice  of  English  society.” 

But,  finally,  was  it  because  the  Evangelicals  preached  Christ 
and  Wesley  did  not?  Did  they  hold  up  the  cross  before  them, 
and  Wesley  thrust  it  behind  him?  Was  the  preaching  of 
Christ — that  which  Mr.  Gladstone  says  was  their  distinctive 
excellence — peculiar  to  the  Evangelicals  ? If  it  was,  ask  these 
men  themselves  from  whom  they  learned  the  lesson  ? Ask 
Toplady,  who  was  awakened  under  a sermon  preached  in  a 
barn  in  Ireland  by  one  of  W esley’s  most  illiterate  lay-itinerants ! 
Ask  John  Berridge,  who,  after  preaching  many  years  without 
a knowledge  of  personal  religion,  was  convinced  by  Wesley 
that  we  are  saved  by  grace  through  faith!  Ask  Henry  Yenn, 
who  said  that  W esley’s  “ words  were  as  thunder  to  his  drowsy 
soul,”  and  he  wiU  answer,  “From  John  Wesley,  the  man  so 
much  endued  with  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias  1 ” Ask  James 
Hervey,  whose  boast  it  was,  that  he  would  tell  of  Wesley’s 
“love  before  the  universal  assembly,  and  at  the  tremendous 
tribunal  hear  tbe  Master  say,  ‘If  others  have  turned  their 

thousands,  my  servant  Wesley  has  turned  his  ten  thousands 
43 


684 


The  TTesley  Memokial  Volume. 


from  the  power  of  Satan  nnto  God.”  Go  and  ask  John  ISTew- 
ton,  and  he  will  tell  you  that  to  John  Wesley,  as  an  instrument 
of  divine  grace,  he  owed  more  than  to  all  others.  What 
preacher  of  the  eighteenth  century,  pre-eminently  above  all 
others,  preached  Christ  ? The  Yorkshire  Methodist,  John  Nel- 
son, answers,  “ The  man  who  showed  me  the  evil  of  my  heart, 
and  pointed  out  to  me  the  remedy ; ” the  Nonconformist,  John 
Howard,  the  greatest  philanthropist  of  his  age,  replies,  “ The 
man  who  first  convinced  me  of  sin,  and  led  me  to  the  cross ; ” 
Dr.  Lowth,  Lord  Bishop  of  London,  answers,  “ The  humble 
Methodist  preacher  at  whose  feet  1 desired  to  sit  in  heaven ; ” 
George  Whitefield,  the  greatest  pulpit  orator  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  replies,  “ The  man  who,  under  God,  was  my  spiritual 
father — who  magnanimously  spared  me  when  I turned  against 
him,  and  always  had  a warm  place  for  me  in  his  forgiving,  lov- 
ing heart.”  Ask  the  mighty  throng  of  blood-washed  Anglo- 
Saxons  in  glory,  the  first-fruits  to  God  and  the  Lamb  out  of 
the  great  revival  begun  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  still 
going  on  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth,  and  they  with 
one  voice,  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  will  send  answer  back, 
“ John  Wesley,  the  great  Methodist  Refokmek  ! ” 

Now,  then,  is  there  any  one  who  will  say  that  there  was — 
high-Calvinism  excepted — any  really  insuperable  ground  of 
difference  between  John  Wesley  and  the  leaders  of  the  Evan- 
gelical party  ? But  the  successors  did  not  remain  true  to  the 
high-Calvinism  of  the  founders.  “Ultra-Calvinism,”  as  Mr. 
Gladstone  writes,  “ softened  in  their  successors,  and  gradually 
disappeared.”  And  when  this  was  done,  no  serious  difference 
remained.  Indeed,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  Mr.  Abbey  thinks 
that  there  was  no  insuperable  bar  in  W esleyanism  to  compre- 
hension with  the  Church  of  England,  even  in  the  days  when 
its  ultra  Calvinistic  Evangelicals  were  pouring  vials  of  wrath 
on  the  devoted  head  of  John  Wesley.  This  being  the  case, 
how  much  more  easily  might  comprehension  have  occurred  if 
ultra-Calvinism  had  been  eliminated  from  the  Established 


Weslet  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  685 


Cliiirch.  That  it  has  been  eliminated  from  the  Chnrch  was 
due,  as  no  one  will  question,  more  to  John  Wesley  than  to  any 
other.  Hence,  his  influence  upon  the  Evangelical  party  itself 
has  been  a profound  and  permanent  influence.  Wesley’s 
preaching,  and  the  Calvinistic  controversy,  compelled  the  suc- 
cessors of  the  older  Calvinistic  Evangelicals  to  soften  the 
harshness  of  the  Geneva  absolute  decrees,  or,  in  effect,  to  aban- 
don them  altogether.  Hot  only,  therefore,  did  John  Wesley 
give  “ the  flrst  impulse  ” to  the  Evangelical  movement,  but  he 
either  modifled  its  distinctive  theological  dogma,  or  caused  it 
to  disappear  as  a differentia  between  pure  Wesleyanism  and 
Evangelicalism.  And  hence,  “ the  principal  share  of  the  par- 
entage ” is  now  far  more  distinctly  “represented  in  the  partic- 
ular contour  of  the  features.”  The  child,  at  the  birth,  did  not 
show  its  perfect  likeness  to  the  father ; but  when  fully  grown 
it  revealed  the  well-known  family  features,  and  unmistakably 
asserted  its  parentage.  While  the  waters  were  comparatively 
naught,  they  seemed  to  indicate  that  they  flowed  from  “ a group 
of  pools ; ” but  when  Altered  and  freed  from  extraneous  impuri- 
ties, the  sweetness  of  the  purifled  waters  pointed  out  the  deep 
but  clear  and  pebbly-bottomed  spring  whence  they  issued.  The 
truth  is,  Mr.  Wesley  not  only  gave  the  flrst,  and  what  Mr.  Glad- 
stone calls  the  main,  impulse  to  the  Evangelical  movement,  but 
he  has  been,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  flrst  to  last,  the  chief 
inspirer  of  whatever  good  it  has  effected.  He  was  the  restorer 
of  spiritual  life  to  all  renewed  Anglicanism.  As  the  great 
revivalist  of  the  eighteenth  century,  he  stands  equally  related 
to  his  own  immediate  followers,  the  followers  of  Whitefleld 
and  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  to  the  Evangelicals  and  their  suc- 
cessors, and  to  the  whole  body  of  the  Anglican  clergy  and  laity 
who  have  experienced  the  joy  of  pardoned  sin.  John  Wesley, 
under  God — to  whom  be  all  the  glory  ! — both  in  Europe  and 
America  was  the  restorer  of  spiritual  life  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  the  chief  inspirer  of  the  great  revival  and  all  its 
gracious  fruits,  in  all  its  manifold  ramifications,  whether  in 


686 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Arminian  or  Calvinistic  Methodism,  Evangelicalism,  Angli- 
canism, the  I^onconformist  Churches,  the  Scottish  Church,  or 
in  the  various  Churches  of  America. 

Religion  was  undoubtedly  at  a very  low  ebb.  In  this  all  writers 
agree.  . . But,  apart  from  Methodism,  zeal  was  out  of  fashion ; and  irre- 
ligion  and  immorality  flourished,  not  unrebuked,  but  unrestrained  by 
any  vigorous  eS'orts  of  religious  energy. — C.  J.  Abbey:  Abbey  and 
Overton’s  “English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.” 

In  its  beginnings  it  [Methodism]  was  essentially  an  agitation  which 
originated  within  the  National  Church,  and  one  in  which  the  very 
thought  of  secession  was  vehemently  deprecated.  As  it  advanced,  though 
one  episcopal  charge  after  another  was  leveled  against  it ; though  pul- 
pit after  pulpit  was  indignantly  refused  to  its  leaders;  though  it  was  on 
all  sides  preached  against,  satirized,  denounced ; though  the  voices  of 
its  preachers  were  not  unfrequently  drowned  in  the  clanging  of  church- 
bells;  though  its  best  features  were  persistently  misunderstood  and  mis- 
represented, and  all  its  defects  and  weaknesses  exposed  with  a merciless 
hand,  Wesley,  with  the  majority  of  his  principal  supporters,  never  ceased 
to  declare  his  love  for  the  Church  of  England,  and  his  hearty  loyalty  to 
its  principles. — Abbey. 

The  difliculties  in  the  way  of  union  and  co-operation  ought  not  to 
have  been  insuperable.  . . . George  II.  always  maintained  that  his  min- 
isters should  have  taken  his  advice  and  made  Whitefield  a bishop.  The 
rulers  of  the  National  Church  would  have  done  better  still  if  they  had 
taken  Wesley  into  their  confidence,  and,  without  cramping  her  freedom  of 
action  by  the  limitations  which  necessarily  attend  the  Episcopate,  had 
candidly  consulted  with  him.  Except  that  he  was  sometimes  inclined  to 
be  overbearing  and  despotic,  Wesley  was  singularly  adapted  to  the  work, 
if  he  had  been  invited  to  undertake  it,  of  so  organizing  the  new  So- 
cieties as  to  make  them  a substantive  part  of  the  fabric  of  the  Church  of 
England.  It  is  not  often  that  a great  reformer^  [the  italics  are  ours,] 
whose  whole  soul  is  possessed  with  one  fervid  idea,  is  also  gifted  with  large 
fowers  of  system  and  with  a great  love  of  order.  John  Wesley,  however,  had, 
in  a very  eminent  degree,  this  important  qualification.  No  man  of  his 
day  would  probably  have  shown  greater  skill  in  suggesting  modes  by 
which  an  extended  Church  organization  could  be  safely  and  practically 
introduced,  [the  italics  ours,]  without  unduly  disturMng  the  parochial 
machinery  of  the  Church. — Abbey. 

Wesley  wrote  in  one  of  his  earlier  works,  and  requoted  in  1766: 


"Wesley  a^td  the  Methodist  Movement.  687 


““We  look  upon  ourselves  not  as  the  authors  or  ringleaders  of  a particu- 
lar sect  or  party,  but  as  messengers  of  God  to  those  who  are  Christians 
in  name,  but  heathens  in  heart  and  life,  to  lead  them  back  to  that  from 
which  they  are  fallen,  to  real,  genuine  Christianity.” 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  comprehending  within  the  National 
Church  men  such  as  these,  and  societies  formed  upon  such  principles, 
ought  not  to  have  been  insurmountable..  No  doubt  they  would  have 
been  surmounted  if  the  Church  of  England  had  been,  at  that  date,  in  a 
really  healthy  and  vigorous  condition.— Abbey. 

Wesley  was  a true  preacher  of  righteousness,  and  had  the  utmost 
horror  of  all  Antinomianism — all  teaching  that  insisted  slightly  on  moral 
duties,  or  which  disparaged  any  outward  means  of  grace. — Abbey. 

It  would  never  have  been  Wesley’s  fault  if  the  thought  and  feeling 
which  gives  ecclesiasticism  its  spiritual  life,  and  which  animates  the 
ritual  of  the  English  Liturgy,  had  been  neglected. — Abbey. 

And  now  that  Calvinism  had  ceased  to  be  the  doctrine  of  more  than 
a comparatively  small  section  of  the  Church  of  England,  his  strongly 
marked  Arminianism  would  have  increased,  or  certainly  not  lessened, 
confidence  in  him,  if  he  had  once  been  accepted  as  the  leader  of  a new 
movement  within  it. — Abbey. 

That  there  was  a close  relation  [italics  ours]  between  Wesley's  preaching 
and  the  newly  rising  evangelical  party  in  the  Ghurch  is  also  sufficiently 
dmious,  . . . The  relation  between  the  two  was  very  intimate.  They  arose 
out  of  the  same  causes,  were  fostered  by  similar  influences,  came  into  close 
contact,  and  were  often  confused  one  with  the  other,  . . . Some  of  the 
evangelical  leaders  owed  to  the  instrumentality  of  Methodism  the  deep  re- 
ligious impressions  they  had  received — Mervey  from  Wesley  at  Oxford,  Top- 
lady  from  a Wesleyan  preacher,  John  Newton  from  Whitejield. — ^Abbey. 

John  I7ewton,  as  we  have  already  seen,  said — in  a letter  to 
"Wesley — ^that  he  owed  more  to  John  Wesley  as  an  instru- 
ment of  divine  grace  than  to  any  other. 

Seeker,  a favorable  representative  of  the  ordinary  Churchmanship  of 
his  time,  "was  evidently  much  disturbed  by  the  irregularities  of  Method- 
ism. But  his  later  charges,  as  compared  with  his  earlier  ones,  show  how 
deeply  he  was  impressed  by  it,  and  how  great  was  the  stimulus  it  gave 
to  pious  and  thoughtful  minds.  In  his  third  charge  as  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  in  1766,  it  had  clearly  contributed  a good  deal  toward 
awakening  him  to  the  sense  that,  “We  have,  in  fact,  lost  many  of 


688 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


our  people  by  not  preaching  in  a manner  sufficiently  evangelical.” — 
Abbey. 

If  the  English  Church  had  awakened  a little  sooner  than  it  did  to  a 
fuller  sense  of  its  responsibilities — even  if  a few  men  of  the  type  oi 
Samuel  Coleridge  or  of  Dr.  Arnold  had  lived  a little  earlier,  and  had 
exercised  in  the  cause  their  talents  and  their  influence — the  various 
bodies  of  Methodists  might  still  have  been  English  Churchmen.  It  is 
the  more  to  be  lamented  that  this  was  not  the  case,  because  a successful 
association  of  the  two  communions  might  have  been  most  beneficial  to 
both,  each  supplying  the  other’s  lack.  . . . The  Church  would  have 
gained  immensely  by  the  comprehension  of  Methodism.  It  would  have 
gained  in  it  just  what  it  most  needed.  But  Methodism  {supposing  its 
action  [the  italics  ours]  to  be  not  cramped  thereby)  would  have  been  no 
less  a gainer. — Abbey. 

In  the  England  of  the  eighteenth  century,  [enthusiasm  is  now  the 
subject,]  when  the  force  of  religion  was  chilled  by  drowsiness  and  in- 
difference in  some  quarters,  by  stiffness  and  formality  and  over-cautious 
orthodoxy  in  others;  when  the  aspirations  of  the  soul  were  being  ever 
bidden  rest  satisfied  with  the  calculations  of  sober  reason ; when  proofs 
and  evidences  and  demonstrations  were  offered,  and  still  offered,  to 
meet  the  cry  of  those  who  called  for  light,  how  else  should  religion  stem 
the  swelling  tide  of  profligacy  but  by  some  such  inward  spiritual  revival 
as  those  by  which  it  had  heretofore  renewed  its  strength?  If  Wesley 
and  Whitefield,  and  their  fellow-workers,  had  not  come  to  the  rescue, 
no  doubt  other  reformers  of  a somewhat  kindred  spirit  would  have 
risen  in  their  stead — how  or  whence  it  is  useless  to  speculate.  Perhaps 
Quakerism,  or  something  nearly  akin  to  it,  might  have  assumed  the 
dimensions  to  which,  a half  century  before,  it  had  seemed  not  unlikely 
to  grow.  The  way  was  prepared  for  some  strong  reaction. — Abbey. 

The  soul  and  heart  of  all  his  teaching,  [Wesley’s,]  from  which  it 
chiefly  gained  its  searching  power,  was  the  faith  in  a deliverance  from, 
and  a victory  over,  sin.  He  could  appeal  with  pride,  such  as  might 
worthily  swell  in  an  apostle’s  breast,  to  the  results  which  proved  the 
moral  strength  with  which  he  led  the  reaction  against  moralities. — 
Abbey. 

Nor  is  the  high  tone  of  Wesley’s  moral  teaching  to  be  estimated 
only  by  its  effects,  or  by  his  constant  insistance  upon  outward  as  well 
as  inward  holiness.  The  dangers  of  Antinomianism  were  constantly 
present  to  his  mind.  He  turned  with  alarm  from  the  Moravians  as  soon 
as  he  saw  in  some  of  their  congregations  a tendency  in  this  direction. 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  689 


He  promised  never  again  to  use  intentionally  the  term  “imputed 
rigliteousuess,”  -when  once  he  found  the  “immense  hurt  which  the  fre- 
quent use  of  this  unnecessary  phrase  had  done.”  Much  of  his  hostility 
to  Calvinism  arose  from  suspicion  of  its  ethical  bearings.  He  saw  that 
his  own  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection  might  be  used  to  countenance 
the  same  error,  and  carefully  sought  to  counteract  the  danger  by  teach- 
ing the  possibility  of  losing  the  gift. — Abbey. 

It  may  ie  said  of  Methodism  [the  italics  are  ours]  that  to  many  thousands 
of  souls  it  was  an  unmixed  Messing.  It  stirred  the  sluggish  spiritual  nature 
to  its  depths  ; it  awolce  the  sense  of  sin  and  an  eager  longing  to  he  delivered 
from  it.  To  the  age  and  Church  in  general  its  quiclcening  action  was 
scarcely  less  important.^  as  providing  to  a considerable  extent  the  very  stimu- 
lus and  corrective  which  prevailing  tendencies  most  required. — Abbey. 

The  Methodist  revival  marked  a decided  turn,  not  only  in  popular 
feeling  on  religious  topics  and  in  the  language  of  the  pulpit,  hut  also  in 
theological  [italics  ours]  and  philosophical  thought  in  general.  It  was 
scarcely  possible  for  those  who  had  witnessed  the  effects  of  Wesley’s 
and  Whitefield’s  preaching  to  speak  or  write  as  if  a linn  conviction  of 
Christian  truth  could  proceed  only  from  the  logic  of  evidences.  . . . 
Wesley  never  disparaged  reason;  but  from  henceforth  inward  feeling 
and  spiritual  discernment  w'ere  to  reassume  a place  in  the  analysis  of 
religious  thought  which  for  a long  time  had  been  denied  to  them.  The 
arguments  both  of  deists  and  of  evidence  writers  rapidly  became  obso- 
lete, when  it  was  felt  that  both  one  and  the  other — the  latter  even 
more  than  the  fonner — had  almost  omitted  from  their  reasonings  facul- 
ties which  might  prove  to  be  among  the  most  imj)ortant  of  which  human 
nature  is  capable,  but  which  had  been  contemptuously  given  over  to  the 
speculations  of  so-called  mystics  and  enthusiasts. — Abbey. 

About  the  time  “when  Wesley’s  power  Gathered  new  strength  from 
hour  to  hour,”  theological  opinion  was  in  much  the  same  state  in  En- 
gland as  that  described  by  Goethe  as  existing  in  Germany  when  he  left 
Leipsic,  in  1768;  it  was,  to  a great  extent,  fluctuating  between  an  his- 
torical and  traditionary  Christianity  on  the  one  hand,  and  pure  deism  on 
the  other.  William  Law,  in  his  own  way,  and  among  a select  but  some- 
what limited  body  of  readers,  Wesley,  in  a more  practical  and  far  more 
popular  manner,  did  very  much  to  restore  to  English  Christianity  the 
element  that  was  so  greatly  wanting — the  appeal  to  a faculty  with  which 
the  soul  is  gifted  to  recognize  the  inherent  excellence,  the  beauty,  truth, 
and  divinity  of  a Divine  Object  once  clearly  set  before  it.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  respective  deflciencies  in  the  systems  and  teaching 


690  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

of  these  men,  they  achieved,  at  least,  this  great  result;  nor  is  it  too 
much  to  say  [the  italics  are  ours]  that  it  game  a death-hloio  to  the  then 
existing  forms  of  Deism. — Abbey. 

It  is  a fact  patent  to  all  students  of  the  period,  that  the  moral  and 
religious  stagnation  of  the  times  extended  to  all  religious  bodies,  outside 
as  well  as  inside  the  National  Church. — J.  H.  Overton:  Abbey  and 
Overton’s  “English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.” 

If  Law  was  the  most  effective  writer,  John  Wesley  was  unquestionably 
the  most  effective  worker  connected  with  the  early  phase  [the  evangelical- 
revival  is  the  subject]  of  the  evangelical  revival.  If  Law  gave  the  first 
impulse  to  the  movement,  Wesley  was  the  first  and  ablest  who  turned 
it  to  practical  account. — Overton. 

But  such  an  ascription  [ascribing  to  Law  the  first  impulse]  seems  to 
me  incorrect. — Gladstone. 

Mr.  Overton  claims  too  much  for  the  impression  which 
Law’s  “ Serious  Call  ” and  “ Christian  Perfection  ” made  on 
the  mind  of  John  Wesley  at  Oxford.  Wesley  afterward  had 
to  undo  much  of  that  impression  before  he  was  fitted  for  his 
great  work.  If  Law  deserves  as  much  credit  as  Mr.  Overton 
gives  him,  will  he  refuse  what  Isaac  Taylor,  and  Sir  James 
Stephen,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  have  awarded  to  Wesley  and 
Whitefield  ? Will  he  deny  to  Mr.  Wesley  the  credit  of  giving 
“ the  first  impulse  ” to  that  part  of  the  great  revival  called 
the  Evangelical  Movement,  seeing  that  Wesley  is  directly not 
only  the  spiritual  father  of  Wliitefield  himself,  but  of  Hervey, 
whom  Mr.  Overton  calls  “ the  first  in  date  of  the  Evangelicals 
proper,”  of  Henry  Venn,  and  of  John  Hewton,  and  indirectly., 
of  Toplady,  Scott,  and  many  others  ? 

But  let  us  follow  Mr.  Overton  further,  and  we  will  see  that 
after  all  he  does  not  differ  from  Isaac  Taylor  and  Sir  James 
Stephen.  “ Lady  Huntingdon’s  drawing-room  ” is  a great  bug- 
bear to  Mr.  Overton.  He  cannot  see  how  one  could  renew  his 
spiritual  life  in  “ Lady  Huntingdon’s  drawing-room  ” — though, 
as  he  tells  us,  she  was  a lady  who  had  “a  single  eye  to  her 
Master’s  glory,  a truly  humble  mind,  and  genuine  piety  ” — 
without  impairing  the  vahdity  of  the  apostolic  orders  received 


"Wesley  aistd  the  Methodist  Movemeistt.  691 


from  the  “upper  room  at  Jerusalem.”  If  John  Wesley’s 
episcopal  lamp  was  kindled  by  the  episcopal  breath  of  the 
nonjnring  Law,  we  do  not  see  why  James  Hervey’s  and  Henry 
Yenn’s,  and  John  Hewton’s,  might  not  have  been  set  aglow 
and  burning  by  the  episcopal  breath  of  John  Wesley  and 
George  Whitefield.  For  all  alike  received  their  apostolic 
authority  to  preach  the  Gospel  from  the  same  upper  room. 

Before  proceeding,  however,  with  our  extracts  from  Mr. 
Overton,  we  take  occasion  to  gratefully  record  our  unqualified 
approval  of  his  and  Mr.  Abbey’s  great  work.  Its  ability  is 
unquestioned  ; its  impartiality  is  freely  acknowledged.  Indeed, 
except  in  a very  few  things — things  which  may  be  pardoned 
in  Churchmen— its  impartiality,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  is 
beyond  praise. 

Neither  is  it  necessary  to  vindicate  the  character  of  this  great  and 
good  man  from  the  imputations  which  were  freely  cast  upon  him  both 
by  his  contemporaries,  (and  that  not  only  by  the  adversaries,  but  by 
many  of  the  friends  and  promoters,  of  the  Evangelical  Movement,)  and 
also  by  some  of  his  later  biographers.  The  saying  of  Mark  Antony: 

“ The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them ; 

The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones,” 

has  been  reversed  in  the  case  of  John  Wesley.  Posterity  has  fully  ac- 
quitted him  of  the  charge  of  being  actuated  by  a mere  vulgar  ambition 
— of  desiring  to  head  a party — of  an  undue  love  of  power.  It  has  at  last 
owned  that  if  ever  a poor,  frail  human  being  was  actuated  by  pure  and 
disinterested  motives,  that  man  was  John  Wesley.  Eight  years  before 
his  death  he  said,  “ I have  been  reflecting  on  my  past  life ; I have  been 
wandering  up  and  down  between  fifty  and  sixty  years,  endeavoring  in 
my  poor  way  to  do  a little  good  to  my  fellow-creatures.”  And  the  more 
closely  his  career  has  been  analyzed,  the  more  plainly  has  the  truth  of 
his  own  words  been  proved.  His  quarrel  was  solely  with  sin  and  Satan. 
His  master-passion  was,  in  his  often-repeated  expression,  the  love  of  God, 
and  the  love  of  man  for  God’s  sake.  The  world  has  at  length  done 
tardy  justice  to  its  benefactor. — OvERTOir. 

The  year  1729  is  the  date  which  Wesley  himself  gives  of  the  rise  of  that 
revival  of  religion  in  which  he  himself  took  so  prominent  a part.  It  is 


692 


The  Wesley  Memokial  Volume. 


somewhat  curious  that  he  places  the  commencement  of  the  revival  at  a 
date  nine  years  earlier  than  that  of  his  own  conversion;  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  in  his  later  years  he  took  a somewhat  different  view  of 
the  latter  event  from  that  which  he  held  in  his  hot  youth.  He  believed 
that  before  1738  he  had  faith  in  God  as  a servant;  after  that,  as  a son. 
At  any  rate,  we  shall  not  be  far  wrong  in  regarding  that  little  meeting 
at  Oxford  of  a few  young  men — called  in  derision  the  Holy  Club,  the 
Sacrament arian  Club,  and  finally  the  Methodists — as  the  germ  [the  last 
italics  ours — just  what  Richard  Watson  has  said,  and  ■what  we  claim]  of 
that  great  movement  now  to  be  described.  Ho  doubt  the  views  of  its 
members  materially  changed  in  the  course  of  years;  but  the  object  of  the 
later  movement  was  precisely  the  same  as  that  of  the  little  band  from  the 
very  first,  namely,  to  promote  the  love  of  God,  and  the  love  of  man  for 
God’s  sake ; to  stem  the  torrent  of  vice  and  irreligion,  and  to  fill  the  land 
with  a godly  and  useful  population. — Oveeton. 

There  is  but  one  clew  to  the  right  understanding  of  Wesley’s  career. 
It  is  this : That  his  one  great  object  was  to  promote  the  love  of  God,  and 
the  love  of  man  for  God’s  sake.  Every  thing  must  give  way  to  this  ob- 
ject of  paramount  importance.  . . . 

Moreover,  it  is  fully  admitted  that  Wesley  was  essentially  a many- 
sided  man.  Look  at  him  from  another  point  of  view,  and  he  stands  in 
precisely  the  same  attitude  in  which  his  contemporaries  and  successors 
of  the  Evangelical  school  stood — as  the  homo  unius  libri,  referring  every 
thing  to  Scripture,  and  to  Scripture  alone.  . . . 

It  was  precisely  the  same  motive  which  led  Wesley  to  the  various 
separations  which,  to  his  sorrow,  he  was  obliged  to  make  from  those 
who  had  been  his  fellow-workers.  He  has  been  accused  of  being  a 
quarrelsome  man,  a man  with  whom  it  was  not  easy  to  be  on  good  terms. 
The  accusation  is  unjust.  Never  was  a man  more  ready  to  forgive 
injuries,  more  ready  to  own  his  failings,  more  firm  to  his  friends,  and 
more  patient  with  his  foes. — Oveeton. 

It  is  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  generous  and  forgiving  nature 
of  the  man  that,  in  spite  of  their  diflFerences,  Wesley  constantly  alluded 
to  Law  in  his  sermons,  and  always  in  terms  of  the  warmest  commenda- 
tion. . . . One  is  thankful  to  find  that  he  did  full  justice  to  the  good 
qualities  of  Count  Zinzendorf.  But  as  to  his  separation  from  the  Lon- 
don Mora-vians,  Wesley  could  not  have  acted  otherwise  without  seriously 
damaging  the  cause  which  he  had  at  heart.  . . . This  [Antinomianism, 
whiclT,  as  a plain  matter-of-fact,  Mr.  Overton  says,  admitted  even  by 
the  Calvinists  themselves,  did  I’esult  in  the  perversion  of  Calvinism]  was 


Wesley  ajstd  the  Methodist  Movement.  693 


obviously  the  ground  of  Wesley’s  dislike  of  Calvinism,  but  it  did 
not  separate  him  from  Calvinists;  so  far  as  a separation  did  ensue, 
the  fault  did  not  lie  witli  Wesley.  ...  In  the  slight  collision  into  which 
he  was  necessarily  brought  with  the  evangelical  clergy,  he  was  actu- 
ated by  no  vulgar  desire  to  make  himself  a name  by  encroaching 
upon  other  men’s  labors,  but  solely  by  the  conviction  tliat  he  must 
do  the  work  of  God  in  the  best  way  he  could,  no  matter  whom  he 
might  offend  or  alienate  by  so  doing. — Overton. 

There  were  none  who  displayed  any  thing  like  the  administrative  talent 
that  he  did.  From  first  to  last  Wesley  held  over  this  large  and  ever- 
increasing  agency  [his  preachers  and  Societies]  an  absolute  supremacy. 

. . , It  certainly  was  an  extraordinary  power  for  one  man  to  possess; 
but  in  its  exercise  there  was  not  the  slightest  taint  of  selfishness,  nor 
yet  the  slightest  trace  that  he  loved  power  for  power’s  sake.  His  own 
account  of  its  rise  is  perfectly  sincere  and  artless,  and,  it  is  honestly 
believed,  perfectly  true.  “The  power  I have,”  he  writes,  “I  never 
sought ; it  was  the  unadvised,  unexpected  result  of  the  work  which  God 
was  pleased  to  work  by  me.  I therefore  suffer  it  until  I can  find  some 
one  to  ease  me  of  my  burden.”  He  used  his  power  simply  to  promote 
his  one  great  object — to  make  his  followers  better  men  and  better 
citizens,  happier  in  this  life,  and  thrice  happier  in  the  life  to  come. 
If  it  was  a despotism,  it  was  a singularly  useful  and  benevolent  despot- 
ism, a despotism  which  was  founded  wholly  and  solely  upon  the  respect 
which  his  personal  character  commanded.  Surely  if  this  man  had  been, 
as  his  ablest  biographer  [Southey;  but  Southey,  as  is  now  well  known, 
retracted  what  he  had  said]  represents  him,  an  ambitious  man,  he 
would  have  used  his  power  for  some  personal  end.  He  would  at  least 
have  yielded  to  the  evident  desire  of  some  of  his  followers,  and  have 
founded  a separate  sect,  in  which  he  might  have  held  a place  not  much 
inferior  to  that  w'hich  Mohammed  held  among  the  faithful.  . . . But 
Wesley  was  no  tyrant;  he  had  no  selfish  end  in  view;  it  was  literally 
“for  their  sakes  [his  preachers]  that  he  ruled  as  he  did;”  and  since  he 
was  infinitely  superior  to  the  mass  of  his  subjects  (one  can  use  no  weaker 
term)  in  point  of  education,  learning,  and  good  judgment,  it  was  to 
their  advantage  that  he  did  so. — Overton. 

. . . But  some  years  before  John  Wesley  uttered  these  memorable 
words  [advice  not  to  separate  from  the  Church]  had  he  not  himself 
done  the  very  thing  which  he  deprecated  ? Consciously  and  inten- 
tionally, No!  a thousand  times,  no!  but  virtually,  and  as  a matter-of- 
fact,  we  must  reluctantly  answer,  Yes.  Lord  Mansfield’s  famous  dictum. 


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The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


“ Ordination  is  separation,”  is  unanswerable.  When,  in  1784,  John 
Wesley  ordained  Coke  and  Asbury  to  be  “ Superintendents,”  and  What- 
coat  and  Vasey  to  be  “elders,”  in  America,  Ae,  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, [the  italics  are  ours,]  crossed  the  Rulieon.  His  brother  Charles  re- 
garded the  act  in  that  light,  and  bitterly  regretted  it.  How  a logical 
mind  like  John  Wesley’s  could  regard  it  in  any  other  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive.  But  that  he  had  in  all  sincerity  persuaded  himself  that  tliere 
was  no  inconsistency  in  it  with  his  strong  Churchmanship,  there  can  be 
no  manner  of  doubt.  Bishop  Stillingjleet's  “ Irenicon  ” [the  italics  are 
ours]  had  convinced  him  that  no  particular  form  of  Church  government  was 
prescribed  in  holy  Scripture ; Lord  King's  Inquiry  into  the  Constitution 
of  the  Primitive  Church"  had  proved  to  him  that  “ bishops  and  presbyters 
were  essentially  of  one  order,  and  that,  originally,  every  Christian  congre- 
gation was  a Church  independent  of  all  others."  And  so  he  wrote  to  his 
brother  in  1780,  “I  verily  believe  I have  as  good  a right  to  ordain  as  to 
administer  the  Lord’s  Supper.”  . . . His  rectitude  of  purpose,  if  not 
the  clearness  of  his  judgment,  is  as  conspicuous  in  this  as  in  the  other 
acts  of  his  life. — Overton. 

One  feature  in  Wesley’s  character  must  be  carefully  noted  by  all  who 
would  form  a fair  estimate  of  him.  If  it  was  a weakness,  and  one 
which  frequently  led  him  into  serious  practical  mistakes,  it  was,  at  any 
rate,  an  amiable  weakness — a fault  which  was  very  near  akin  to  a 
virtue.  A guileless  trustfulness  of  his  fellow-men,  who  often  proved  very 
unworthy  of  his  confidence,  and,  akin  to  this,  a credulity,  a readiness 
to  believe  the  marvelous,  tinged  his  whole  character.  “ My  brother,” 
said  Charles  Wesley,  “was,  I think,  born  for  the  benefit  of  knaves.” 
It  is  in  the  light  of  this  quality  that  we  must  interpret  many  important 
events  of  his  life.  His  relations  with  the  other  sex  were  notoriously 
unfortunate;  not  a breath  of  scandal  was  ever  uttered  against  him;  and 
the  mere  fact  that  it  was  not  is  a convincing  proof,  if  any  were  needed, 
of  the  spotless  purity  of  his  life;  for  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  conduct 
more  injudicious  than  his  was.  The  story  of  his  relationship  with 
Sophia  Causton,  [Hopkey,]  Grace  Murray,  Sarah  Ryan,  and  last,  but  not 
least,  the  widow  of  Vazeille,  his  termagant  wife,  need  not  here  be  re- 
peated. In  the  case  of  any  other  man  scandal  would  often  have  been 
busy;  but  Wesley  was  above  suspicion.  His  conduct  was  put  down  to 
the  right  cause,  viz. ; a perfect  guilelessness  and  simplicity  of  nature. 
The  same  tone  of  mind  led  him  to  take  men  as  well  as  women  too  much 
at  their  own  estimates.  He  was  quite  ready  to  believe  those  who  said 
that  they  had  attained  the  summit  of  Christian  perfection,  though. 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movement.  695 


with  characteristic  humility,  he  never  professed  to  have  attained  it 
himself. — Overton. 

But,  after  all,  these  weaknesses  detract  but  little  from  the  greatness, 
and  nothing  from  the  goodness,  of  John  Wesley.  Ee  stands  [italics  are 
ours]  pre-eminent  among  the  worthies  who  originated  and  conducted  the 
reciml  of  practical  religion  which  tooTc  place  in  the  last  century.  In  par- 
ticular points  he  was  surpassed  by  one  or  other  of  his  fellow-workers. 
In  preaching  power  he  was  not  equal  to  Whitefield;  in  saintliness  of 
character  he  was  surpassed  by  Fletcher;  in  poetical  talent  he  was  in- 
ferior to  his  brother;  in  solid  learning  he  was,  perhaps,  not  equal  to  his 
friend  and  disciple,  Adam  Clarke.  But  no  one  combined  all  these 
characteristics  in  so  remarkable  a degree  as  John  Wesley;  and  he 
possessed  others  besides  these  which  were  all  his  own.  He  was  a born 
ruler  of  men;  the  powers  which,  under  different  conditions  would  have 
made  him  “ a heaven-born  statesman,”  he  dedicated  to  still  nobler  and 
more  useful  purposes.  The  good  which  he  did  among  the  poor,  whom 
he  loved,  is  simply  incalculable;  and  his  long  life,  which  was  almost 
commensurate  with  the  century,  enabled  him  to  see  the  fruits  of  his 
labors.  Among  the  poor,  at  least,  he  was  always  appreciated  at  his 
full  worth.  And  one  is  thankful  to  find  that  toward  the  end  of  his  life 
his  character  began  to  be  better  understood  and  respected  by  worthy 
men,  who  could  not  entirely  identify  themselves  with  the  Evangelical 
movement. — Overton. 

It  remained  [italics  ours]  for  the  present  generation  to  do  justice  to  his 
memory  ly  giving  a place  in  our  Christian  Walhalla  among  the  great  dead 
to  one  who  was  certainly  among  the  greatest  of  his  day. — -Overton. 

Methodism,  in  all  its  branches,  is  a fact  in  the  history  of  England, 
which  develops  into  large  and  still  larger  dimensions  as  time  rolls  on ; 
this  must  be  felt  by  every  impartial  historian,  whatever  may  be  his  own 
private  opinions. — John  Stoughton,  D.D : “Religion  in  England  under 
Queen  Anne  and  the  Georges.” 

The  rise  and  progress  of  Methodism  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  im- 
portant ecclesiastical  fact  of  modern  times.,  [the  italics  are  ours,]  and  re- 
quires to  be  studied  in  relation  to  the  Established  Church  of  England, 
the  old  Nonconformist  bodies,  and  the  missionary  interests  of  Chris- 
tianity throughout  the  world,  by  every  one  who  would  understand  the 
religious  history  of  the  last  hundred  years. — Stoughton. 

In  another  respect  the  history  of  Methodism  is  important  and  suggest- 
ive. Methodism,  like  Puritanism,  might  have  been,  at  least  to  a large 
extent,  preserved  as  so  much  vital  force  within  the  National  Church ; 


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The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


but  neither  were  allowed  a place  wilhin  its  precincts.  By  a hard,  nar- 
row, unsympathetic,  and  exclusive  policy,  both  these  parties  were  forced 
into  a position  outside;  and  the  same  policy  which  ejected  so  many 
clergymen  at  the  Restoration,  and  threw  off  the  Wesleyan  revivalists, 
also  increased  these  sections  of  Dissent  in  point  of  numbers.  At  the 
same  time  this  policy  strengthened  and  developed  the  principles  which 
the  two  sections  embodied.  At  last  it  placed  their  followers  in  an  atti- 
tude toward  the  Establishment  far  beyond  what  the  leaders  had  ever 
contemplated.  Of  course,  that  policy  was  meant  to  strengthen  and 
preserve  the  Church,  but  it  had  an  opposite  effect.  It  perpetuated  and 
promoted  Nonconformity.  What  was  employed  as  a means  of  union 
and  consolidation  operated  as  a solvent,  and  separated  from  the  rest 
the  most  [italics  are  ours]  actvce  elements  of  the  Church's  religion.  This 
might  have  been  foreseen  in  1662  : they  must  have  been  blind  indeed 
who  did  not  perceive  it  a century  afterward. — Stoughton. 

Methodism,  as  an  organization  outside  the  National  Church,  was  the 
result  of  circumstances  more  than  of  design ; its  development  rose  out 
of  no  fixed  plan,  but  rather  resembled  the  growth  of  the  English  Con- 
stitution. — Stoughton. 

A superficial  likeness  between  the  Society  of  John  Wesley  and  the 
Society  of  Ignatius  Loyola,  has  laid  hold  on  some  imaginations  so  as 
to  mislead  their  judgment.  The  founder  of  Methodism,  like  the  author 
of  Jesuitism,  was  a man  of  rare  administrative  ability,  and  the  extent, 
stability,  and  permanence  of  the  system  rival  those  of  the  Roman  insti- 
tute ; the  order  and  regularity  of  proceedings  in  the  one  case  may  be 
compared  with  the  steady,  methodical  action  of  the  other.  There  the 
likeness  stops;  divergences  branch  into  contrasts.  As  to  history,  what 
has  been  said  about  the  origin  of  Methodism  in  Wesley’s  mind,  and  the 
discipline  of  circumstances  leading  to  unanticipated  consequences,  pre- 
sents a story  opposed  to  that  of  Jesuitism,  which  began  with  raising  a 
new  order,  according  to  a definite  plan  framed  from  the  beginning. 
The  theory  [italics  ours]  that  Wesley  determined  on  an  ambitious  scheme 
for  rivaling  other  denominations  is  now  exploded:  that  Ignatius  Loyola 
designed  to  create  a new  institution  is  an  indisputable  fact.  As  to 
aims,  Methodism  sprung  from  a simple  desire  to  save  souls,  however,  in 
the  estimation,  of  some  of  its  critics,  it  may  have  involved  fanaticism. 
It  pointed  to  no  political  ends,  it  contemplated  no  intrigues  for  the 
attainment  of  social  influence,  it  embraced  no  schemes  of  literary  and 
scientific  culture:  such  objects  were  compassed  and  prominently  kept  in 
view  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers.  As  to  principles,  Methodist  doctrine  is  as 


AVeslet  akd  the  Methodist  Movement.  697 


much  opposed  to  those  of  Loyola,  as  Luther’s  cloctriue  is  to  that  of 
Rome;  and  Methodist  discipline,  whatever  the  defects  charged  upon  it, 
is  thoroughly  free  from  intolerance  with  regard  to  other  denominations, 
its  constant  maxim  having  been,  ‘ ‘ the  friend  of  all,  and  the  enemy  of 
none.  ” — Stoughton. 

The  founder  of  Methodism  now  asserted  autliority  over  the  -Connec- 
tion which  he  had  drawn  together.  Preachers  had  joined  him  volun- 
tarily ; he  accepted  their  services,  and  superintended  their  work.  Peo- 
ple had  come  to  him  for  spiritual  counsel  and  help ; he  had  arranged 
them  in  classes,  and  over  them  he  maintained  religious  discipline. 
Every  thing  was  freely  done  on  both  sides.  It  was  a mutual  compact ; 
nobody  was  enslaved;  and  those  who  did  not  like  the  arrangements 
were  free  to  retire  from  the  body.  To  keep  things  together  a controlling 
power  was  necessary;  this  fell  on  Wesley  as  a burden,  it  was  not  sought 
l)y  him  as  a privilege. — Stoughton. 

Among  such  men  [Wesley’s  lay-preachers]  John  Wesley,  Fellow  of 
Lincoln,  a classical  scholar,  a learned  divine,  a man  of  accomplish- 
ments, spent  the  years  of  a long  life  on  terms  of  intimate  friendship ; 
and,  while  ruling  them  as  their  superior,  he  treated  them  as  his  brothers 
or  as  his  sons. — Stoughton. 

In  winding  up  what  has  been  said  respecting  English  Presbyterianism, 
it  is  sufficient  to  add,  that  with  all  the  ability  of  its  ministers,  all  the 
respectability  of  its  congregations,  all  the  culture  of  its  society,  and  all 
the  services  which  it  rendered  to  science,  literature  and  liberty,  it  did 
not  advance  in  numbers  or  in  power.  So  far  from  it,  its  history  for 
fifty  years  was  one  of  decline.  The  causes  are  obvious.  A dry,  hard, 
cold  method  of  preaching  generally  marked  the  pulpit;  warm,  vigorous, 
spiritual  life  appeared  not  in  the  pews.  No  greater  contrast  can  be 
imagined  than  between  the  Methodist  and  the  Presbyterian  preacher, 
the  Methodists  and  the  Presbyterian  people.  Tlie  unction,  the  fire,  the 
moral  force,  so  visible  in  the  one  case,  is  absent  in  the  other.  Method- 
ism laid  hold  on  the  conscience  of  England ; Presbyterianism  did  not. 
The  sympathy  elicited  there  is  found  wanting  here ; and  no  culture,  no 
intellectual  power,  no  respectability  of  position,  could  make  up  for;  the 
lack  of  earnest  gospel  preaching  and  warm-hearted  spiritual  life. — 
Stoughton. 

It  is  vei-y  remarkable  that  at  this  very  time  the  denomination,  [the 
Baptists — whose  “spiritual  torpor  prevailed^”  whose  “religious  faeul- 
ties  were  benumbed,”  and  among  whom,  adds  our  author,  “there  was 
thorough-going  Antinomianism  in  practice,”]  whether  cognizant  of  it  or 


698 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


not,  really  caught  the  bracing  breeze  which  had  come  sweeping  down 
the  hills  of  Methodism  over  Baptist  meadows,  as  well  as  Independent 
fields. — Stoughton. 

Methodism,  both  in  Arrainian  and  Calvinistic  forms,  served  to  give 
personal  religion  ascendency  over  ecclesiastical  government.  . . . Meth- 
odism grew  out  of  the  feeling  that  religious  experience,  and  the  truth 
which  produces  it,  take  precedence  of  every  thing  else,  and  that  to  these 
primary  objects  all  which  is  merely  ecclesiastical  must  be  kept  in  strict 
and  lasting  subordination. — Stoughton. 

Out  of  such  an  idea  there  arose  another,  namely,  that  in  evangelical 
piety  we  are  to  look  for  a center  and  ground  of  union ; that  men  may 
differ  in  Church  views  and  yet  be  one  in  spiritual  sentiment.  . . . From 
this  manner  of  looking  at  the  subject  [that  the  Church  is  not  identified 
with  any  one  visible  fellowship,  but  includes  the  whole  “ aggregate  of 
souls  renewed  by  truth  and  affiliated  to  the  divine  Father”]  there 
emanated  a conviction  that  it  is  possible  for  persons  of  different  de- 
nominations to  co-operate  in  acts  of  charity,  not  only  for  temporal,  but 
for  spiritual  objects.  [Such  co-operation  between  Christians  of  different 
denominations  as  issued  in  the  great  Missionary,  Tract,  and  Bible  So- 
cieties, the  author  contends,  resulted  from  “ the  memorable  Methodist 
revival,”  and  never  could  have  come  from  Anglo-Catholicism ; for] 
“Anglo-Catholicism  identifies  the  visible  with  the  invisible  Church, 
orthodoxy  with  Orders,  faith  with  early  Creeds,  spiritual  life  with  the 
administration  of  Sacraments,  and  devotion,  at  least  in  public,  with 
liturgical  worship.  . . . This  conception  is  irreconcilable  with  the  ideas 
which  we  discover  in  the  folds  of  Methodism.  . . . Nor  is  it  sufficient 
to  refer  to  the  Anglo-Catholic  theory  alone.  To  some  other  theories 
this  idea  of  union  stood  opposed.  . . . Many  Presbyterians,  Independ- 
ents, and  Baptists  were  so  attached  to  their  own  Church  ideas,  that 
they  could  not  see  their  w’ay  at  once  to  step  out  of  inclosed  vineyards 
to  work  on  a broad,  open  common.  . . . Sentiments  of  brotherly  love, 
and  a sympathetic  desire  to  j)romote  the  common  salvation,  however, 
overcame  in  a great  many  ministers  and  laymen  the  objections  they  felt 
at  first.  . . . Gradually  they  came  to  see  that  some  of  the  proposed 
methods  of  united  activity  involved  no  compromise  of  ecclesiastical 
principle,  required  no  surrender  of  distinctive  practices,  and  endangered 
no  denominational  interests. — Stoughton. 

Extra  services,  and  particularly  public  meetings,  mark  a further 
change  in  the  popular  religion  of  the  day.  Before  the  rise  of  Method- 
ism, the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  the  written  sermon  were  the  only 


Wesley  and  the  Methodist  Movejient.  699 


forms  of  religious  utterance  within  the  pale  of  an  English  parish;  and 
the  meeting-house  witnessed  little  or  nothing  beyond  formal  Sun- 
day discourses,  the  singing  of  Watts’  and  Doddridge’s  hymns,  and  the 
offering  of  extempore  prayer.  But  Methodism  carried  preaching  out  of 
consecrated  buildings  into  private  houses,  public  halls,  city  streets,  and 
village  greens.  It  gave  a new  impetus  to  prayer-meetings  on  week- 
days ; it  led  to  gatherings  for  religious  conversation.  Classes  and  love- 
feasts  were  not  adopted  by  the  old  Dissent  any  more  than  by  the  orthodox 
Church ; but  a tendency  to  social  spiritual  engagements  beyond  those  of 
the  stereotyped  order  was,  doubtless,  one  of  the  effects  produced  by 
the  Methodist  revival. — Stoughton. 

I do  not  say  he  [Wesley]  was  without  faults  or  above  mistakes;  but 
they  were  lost  in  the  multitude  of  his  excellences  and  virtues. — Anony- 
mous: Woodfall’s  “Diary,  ” London,  June  17,  1791. 

We  are  not  blind  to  his  faults,  but  even  these  will  be  found  to  have 
sprung  from  the  sincerity,  openness,  and  native  simplicity  of  his  char- 
acter.— Dr.  Dobbin. 

Was  Wesley  without  faults?  Not  so;  no  man  but  “the  Man  Christ 
Jesus  ” ever  was. — L.  Ttebman. 

But  was  he  faultless  ? If  he  had  been,  he  would  have  been  less  ad- 
mirable to  us,  for  the  truest  human  greatness  is  in  the  combat  with  evil ; 
he  would  have  been  less  suited  for  his  great  work,  for  to  men  rather 
than  to  angels  has  the  Gospel  been  committed. 

The  candid  student  of  history  will  be  able  to  find  in  all  its  records 
but  few  men  who  had  fewer  faults,  however  many  he  may  suppose  he 
finds  who  had  greater  abilities  or  greater  virtues. — Abel  Stevens. 


44 


THE  WESLEY  MONUMENTAL  CHUECE 

1Y86-1879. 


OUE.  Methodism  never  mourned  at  such  a funeral  as  that  of 
Lovick  Pierce ; it  never  can  again : for  he  was  born  six 
years  before  John  Wesley  died ; he  became  an  itinerant  preacher 
during  the  Chi-istmas  of  1804 ; he  was  the  contemporary  of 
Asbnry  and  M’Kendree;  he  lived  through  over  three  gener- 
ations of  men ; and  he  was  a preacher  of  the  gospel  of  the 
the  Son  of  God  for  seventy-five  years.  Wlien  he  mounted  his 
horse,  in  January,  1805,  and  bade  good-bye  to  his  mother  for 
the  wide  reaches  of  the  Great  Pedee  Circuit,  in  South  Carolina, 
there  were  but  five  or  six  millions  of  people  in  the  United 
States ; when  he  died,  in  Sparta,  Georgia,  on  Sunday  evening, 
November  9,  1879,  there  were  fifty  millions.  When  he  began 
his  itinerant  career  the  Indians  were  in  Middle  Georgia ; when 
he  closed  it,  our  white  population,  ever  pushing  westward, 
had  stretched  its  advancing  fines  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
to  the  Pacific.  He  was  befoBe  steamboats,  railways,  tele- 
graphs, to  say  nothing  of  more  recent  and  wonderful  inven- 
tions. During  his  life-time  the  most'  notable  helps  to  the 
progress  and  civilization  of  the  human  race  have  come  into 
use. 

When  Lovick  Pierce  entered  upon  his  work  Methodists 
were  counted  only  by  thousands ; when  he  entered  upon  his 
reward  they  were  counted  by  millions.  There  are  more  Meth- 
odists among  the  nations  called  heathen  to-day,  than  were  in 
England  and  America  when  Asbnry  gave  him  his  first  appoint- 
ment. There  are  more  Methodist  preachers  in  Hindustan 
to-day  than  were  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  when 
Lovick  Pierce  was  “admitted  on  trial.”  The  Wesleyan  Con- 


The  Wesley  Montemehtal  Chhech. 


701 


ference  in  the  Fiji  Islands — and  the  Fijians  were  cannibals 
when  he  was  in  his  prime — is  nearly  as  strong  in  numbers 
as  was  Methodism  in  the  TJnited  States  when  he  entered  its 
ranks. 

It  may  be  inentioned  with  propriety,  also,  that  the  greatest 
conservative  and  aggressive  movements  of  the  Church  have 
had  their  beginning,  or  have  taken  on  their  strength,  since  onr 
translated  father  began  to  preach.  The  great  Bible  and  Tract 
and  Missionary  Societies  have  been  organized,  or  developed 
into  power,  since  “ Providence  gave  Lovick  Pierce  to  the 
human  race.”  Within  his  time  the  Church  has  begun  to 
reahze  her  educational  function,  both  in  the  founding  of 
great  schools,  colleges,  and  universities,  and  in  furnishing  the 
people  with  sanctified  literature.  That  wonder  of  modern 
rehgious  life — the  Sunday-school  movement — has  grown  into 
a power  that  promises  untold  blessings  to  the  world,  since  he 
began  to  “ call  sinners  to  repentance.” 

He  lived  through  the  “ heroic  days  ” of  the  first  period  of 
American  Methodist  history ; he  lived  through  the  period  of  its 
more  perfect  ecclesiastical  organization ; he  lived  to  see  Meth- 
odist Churches  planted  on  every  continent  and  on  every  chief 
island  of  the  sea ; he  lived  to  see  universal  Methodism,  count- 
ing millions  in  its  ranks,  and  drawing  together  in  holy,  fra- 
ternal love,  gathering  up  its  God-given  energies  for  its  grand- 
est achievements  ; he  lived  to  see — as  in  apocalyptic  vision — 
the  gray  lines  of  light  in  the  East  that  herald  the  dawn  of  the 
brightest  and  divinest  day  in  its  history. 

FuU  of  years,  full  of  honors,  trusted  and  loved  through 
three  generations,  revered  by  millions  of  godly  men  and 
women,  respected  by  his  fellow-citizens  of  every  class,  prized 
of  heaven  and  ripe  for  the  harvest,  he  has  “ fallen  on  sleep,” 
he  has  been  “ gathered  unto  his  fathers,”  in  the  “ sure  and  cer- 
tain hope  of  the  resurrection  of  the  deacL”  There  was  sadness 
in  our  Methodism,  but  not  lamentation,  the  day  he  died.  A 
mighty  man  and  a prince  in  our  Israel  has  been  buried,  but 


702  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

mingled  with  oxir  tears  are  songs  of  victory.  The  noblest 
thing  that  a man  can  do  is  to  live  and  die  “ in  the  Lord ; ” 
and  he  whom  they  laid  to  rest  in  Columbus,  Georgia,  ISTov- 
ember  12,  1879,  had  “fought  a good  fight,”  had  “kept  the 
faith,”  had  “ finished  his  course.”  He  has  entered  into  rest ; 
he  has  won  his  triumph.  If  the  Senate  of  Rome  voted 
Caesar  a triumph  when  he  returned  victorious  from  his  wars, 
shall  not  the  Church  of  God,  although  bereaved  of  a trusted 
leader,  rejoice  on  the  day  of  his  triumphant  entrance  into 
the  city  of  God,  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  heavenly 
host  ? 

What  welcomes  he  has  received ! How  many  thousands, 
helped  to  heaven  through  his  ministry — how  many  veterans,  his 
companions  in  arms,  who  toiled,  and  suffered,  and  triumphed 
with  him  through  the  campaigns  of  three  quarters  of  a cent- 
ui’y,  but  who  outran  him  to  glory — have  received  him  into 
the  company  of  the  redeemed  ! 

We  can  but  notice  the  coincidence  in  our  long-delayed 
winter,  in  1879,  and  his  greatly  prolonged  life.  It  Avas  near 
the  middle  of  JSTovember,  btit  the  songs  of  the  harvest  had  not 
died  away,  and  the  woods  and  fields  were  still  glorious  in 
scarlet  and  purple  and  gold.  Lovick  Pierce  lived  among  men 
for  nearly  one  hundred  years,  but  he  was  not*  like  a tree 
stripped  of  its  foliage — naked  and  cold  under  wintry  skies. 
His  faculties  of  intellect  and  affection  Avere  marvelously  spared 
to  him,  and  when  he  died  the  reapers  were  still  gathering  the 
harvests  of  his  fields,  and  there  were  only  the  autumn  glories 
to  tell  us  that  the  summer  of  his  fife  was  over  and  gone.  Plis 
last  year  among  us,  year  of  languishing  though  it  was,  was  a 
year  of  usefulness.  Many  lessons  of  divine  wisdom  were 
given  and  received  in  his  sick  room ; and  from  that  hallowed 
chamber  there  went  forth  to  the  Churches  many  epistles,  rich 
in  doctrine  and  consolation.  As  he  lay  on  his  bed  of  suffering, 
waiting  for  the  coming  of  his  Lord,  the  tree  of  his  religious 
life  bloomed  and  fruited  anew. 


The  Wesley  Monumental  Chlech. 


703 


The  folloY'ing  “Plea  for  the  Wesley  Monumental  ” Chnrch 
in  Savannah  was  written  by  the  “ old  man  eloquent  ” near  the 
close  of  his  long  and  beautiful  life.  The  building  of  this 
Church  was,  from  its  beginning,  a thing  very  near  and  very 
dear  to  his  heart.  With  his  own  hands  he  laid  its  corner- 
stone, and  with  his  prayers  he  consecrated  it  to  God.  Let 
universal  Methodism,  giving  heed  to  Dr.  Pierce’s  “Plea  for 
the  Wesley  Monumental  Church,”  resolve  that  this  monument 
to  Mr.  Wesley  shall  be  speedily  completed. 

A PLEA  FOR  THE  WESLEY  MONUMENTAL  CHURCH 

To  ALL  CALLED  MeTHODISTS,  GeEETING  : 

Beloved  Beetheen  : — By  reason  of  my  great  age  and  in- 
creasing infirmities,  to  say  nothing  of  life’s  uncertain  tenure — 
being  in  the  ninety-fifth  year  of  my  age,  and  the  seventy-sixth 
of  my  active  itinerant  ministry — I am  prompted  to  addi-ess 
you  in  this  Memorial  Yolume,  that  you  may  know  my  views 
concerning  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church,  in  Savannah, 
Georgia,  now  in  rising  progress  to  its  final  finish  and  dedica- 
tion to  the  worship  of  Almighty  God.  I do  this  in  earnest 
hope  that  all  Wesleyan  Methodists  every- where  will  put  into  it 
a nail,  a brick,  or  a pane  of  glass. 

My  principal  reason  for  writing  as  I now  write  is,  because  I 
fear  some  persons  may  do  themselves  and  us  injustice  by  enter- 
taining false  conceptions  of  underlying  and  prompting  motives. 
The  Monumental  Church  may  be  looked  upon  as  a mere  con- 
trivance to  meet  an  exigency.  I7o,  my  brethren,  I can  assure 
you  it  is  not.  I have  been  mixed  up  with  the  noble  concep- 
tion of  this  monument  to  Mr.  Wesley  ever  since  it  was  pro- 


* The  substance  of  the  above  “ Plea  ” — to  which  I have  prefixed  an  Introduc- 
tion written  for  me  by  Dr.  Haygood — was  originally  presented  by  Dr.  Pierce  in 
the  form  of  a petition  to  the  late  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  held  at  Atlanta,  Georgia,  May,  ISIS.  It  was  subsequently  pre- 
pared and  given,  in  its  present  form,  as  Dr.  Lovick  Pierce’s  contribution  to  the 
Wesley  Memorial  Volume. — Editor. 


704 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


jected ; had  the  honor  to  officiate  in  laying  the  corner-stone, 
and  to  participate  in  the  memorable  ceremonies  of  the  occasion. 
It  is  intended  to  be  a Monumental  Church  in  honor  of  Mr. 
Wesley,  as  the  apostle  and  founder  of  Wesleyan  Methodism 
every- where,  but  eminently  in  America,  where,  at  his  own 
instance,  it  was  first  organized  into  a Church.  That  it  should 
be  at  Savannah  was  providentially  determined  by  the  fact  that 
Mr.  Wesley,  who  afterward  claimed  the  world  as  his  parish, 
came  to  America  as  an  evangelist,  and  began  his  evangelistic 
ministry  in  Savannah.  There  is  the  place  for  the  Wesley 
Monumental  Church. 

This  Church  was  never  thought  of  as  a means  of  magnifying 
Southern  Methodism,  but  universal  Methodism.  Hence  we 
have  appealed  to  all,  even  to  Old  England  herself,  the  mother 
of  Methodism,  and  every-where  we  have  met  with  approval. 
We  have  judged  it  best  to  bring  this  grand  enterprise  before 
our  millions  of  Wesleyan  Methodists  every-where,  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  in  Australia,  in  the  Canadas,  and  in  the 
United  States,  and  wherever  Methodism  has  a home,  and  ask 
for  enough  to  complete  the  building.  It  will  be  a blot  upon 
Methodists  to  let  this  Monumental  Church  grow  old  with  its 
scaffolding  around  it.  It  is  with  great  pleasure  I state  that 
this  edifice  is  in  a state  of  forwardness  which  renders  its  early 
completion  certain.  If  the  Wesleyan  family  will  say  so,  it 
shall  be  completed.  There  is  in  this  move  what  will  furnish 
for  devout  minds,  and  all  who  love  Wesleyan  Methodism, 
occasion  for  enlarged  faith  in  God’s  provisional  providence.  I 
suppose  for  the  hundred  and  thirty-six  years  that  intervened 
between  Mr.  Wesley’s  ministry  in  Savannah  and  the  concep- 
tion of  building  a Monumental  Church  there  in  honor  of  his 
name,  no  one  thought  of  it  until  the  idea  was  happily  con- 
ceived, in  1875,  by  the  Eev.  Alexander  M.  Wynn,  of  the 
South  Georgia  Conference,  who  was  at  that  time  pastor  of 
Wesley  Church  in  Savannah.  At  the  very  time  when  some 
nucleus  was  needed  around  which  hearts  rent  asunder  by 


•The  Wesley  Monumental  Chuech. 


705 


ecclesiastical  and  civil  war  miglit  come  together  again  in  fra- 
ternal union,  comes  up  this  Monumental  Church.  It  cannot 
be  that  Methodists  will  fail  to  unite  in  thus  doing  honor  to  the 
memory  of  their  great  father  and  founder.  From  this  attract- 
ive idea  and  its  correlative  issues  began  to  flow  the  endearing 
sympathies  of  fraternal  affection. 

Tour  brother  in  Christ,  Lovick  Pierce. 


STATISTICS  OF  METHODISM. 


IlSr  the  earliest  period  of  Methodism  it  was  a part  of  the 
method  of  its  founder  to  wiite  down,  for  the  information  of 
all  inquirers,  every  fact  of  imjDortance  connected  with  the  rise 
and  progress  of  his  Societies.  “Minutes  of  Conversations” 
between  Mr.  Wesley  and  his  ministers  in  them  yearly  Confer- 
ences were  carefully  printed,  showing  not  only  the  doctrines 
and  polity  of  the  new  movement  which  he  supervised,  and 
which  was  justly  exciting  public  attention,  but  also  noting 
its  successes  or  failures  in  every  department  of  its  economy. 
This  rigid  system  of  statement  in  detail  has  given  to  Method- 
ism a statistical  history  far  superior  in  variety,  extent,  and  cor- 
rectness to  that  of  any  other  religious  denomination. 

That  portion  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference  Minutes 
commencing  with  the  Annual  Conference  of  17M,  and  closing 
with  that  of  1860,  fills  fourteen  large  octavo  volumes,  with  an 
aggregate  of  8,299  pages.  The  Minutes  of  the  Annual  Ses- 
sions of  Conference  since  1860  fill  nineteen  volumes  12mo., 
with  a total  of  7,688  additional  pages,  many  of  th'em  in  small 
type,  of  which  a considerable  portion  is  made  up  of  carefully 
tabulated  statistics.  This  grand  total  of  thirty-three  volumes 
includes  the  returns  for  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  years. 

The  General  Minutes  of  the  Conferences  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  thus  far  issued  cover  the  period  from  1773 
to  1879  inclusive.  These  Minutes  make  seventeen  volumes, 
aggregating  10,387  pages.  The  gradual  and  ever-increasing 
extension  of  the  records  of  the  annual  returns  marks  the  con- 
stant growth  of  the  Church  in  all  departments  of  her  work. 
Beginning  with  a Conference  when  the  whole  of  American 
Methodism  embraced  only  ten  preachers,  and  five  pastoral 


Statistics  of  Methodism. 


707 


cliarges,  with  1,160  lay  members,  the  first  Minutes  were  cir- 
cumscribed in  scope,  and  were  correspondingly  brief  in  extent. 
The  whole  records  for  the  fii'st  fifty-six  years,  covering  the 
period  from  1773  to  1828,  inclusive,  are  included  in  the  first 
volume,  of  574  pages.  The  second  volume  includes  the  Min- 
utes of  eleven  years ; the  third,  seven  years ; the  fourth,  six 
years;  the  fifth,  four  years.  Beginning  with*  the  sixth  vol- 
ume, and  with  the  year  1856,  each  volume  is  filled  with  the 
records  of  only  two  years,  and  recently,  in  order  to  include 
two  yearly  records  within  the  proper  compass  of  a single  vol- 
ume, the  type  has  been  greatly  reduced  in  size.  The  last  vol- 
ume (for  1878  and  1879)  contains  831  super-royal  octavo 
pages,  and  of  these  402  are  filled  with  tabulated  figures  closely 
arranged,  and  in  type  so  small  that  a single  page  contains  six 
times  as  much  matter  as  a page  of  this  book.  The  General  Min- 
utes of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  show  a similar 
fullness  and  exactness  of  annual  numerical  returns.  The 
writer  has  brfore  him  the  Minutes  for  1866  to  1869,  1874, 
1875,  and  1879.  These  (embracing  the  reports  of  nine  years) 
fill  1,315  pages  of  similar  size  to  those  of  the  Minutes  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

In  addition  to  these  volumes  of  “Minutes”  are  the  “Jour- 
nals” of  the  General  Conferences.  Those  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  alone  fill  nine  large  octavo  volumes,  and 
fm’nish,  in  their  reports  and  other  records,  a vast  amount  of 
connectional  statistical  information  not  contained  in  the  Min- 
utes of  the  Annual  Conferences.  Those  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  report,  with  similar  minuteness,  the 
proceedings  of  nine  quadrennial  General  Conferences,  the  last 
(that  of  1878)  making  a volume  of  280  octavo  pages.  To  all 
these  must  be  added  the  printed  annual  reports  of  the  various 
missionary  and  benevolent  organizations  of  these  two  great 
branches  of  Methodism.  These  reports  embrace  in  their 
several  departments  a total  of  many  closely-printed  volumes  of 
statistical  information.  Branches  of  Methodism,  inheriting  the 


708 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


iisage  from  the  parent  Church,  are  all  characterized  severally 
by  an  ample  statistical  history.  As  already  indicated,  no  de- 
nomination outside  of  the  Methodist  family  furnishes  statistical 
information  approaching  this,  either  in  the  scope  of  the  topics 
or  in  the  regularity,  extent,  and  fullness  of  the  current  statis- 
tical returns. 

In  correctness,  as  well  as  in  scope  and  fullness,  Methodist 
statistics  are  also  far  in  advance  of  those  of  other  denomina- 
tions in  this  country.  While  being  far  from  perfect,  (so  that 
there  is  a desire  in  all  directions  among  us  for  improvement,) 
they  are  so  incomparably  more  reliable  than  those  of  other 
leading  Churches,  as  to  have  secured  the  highest  praise  from 
the  best  statisticians  of  the  age.  Hon.  Francis  A.  Walker, 
Superintendent  of  the  last  United  States  Census,  in  his  official 
report  of  the  same  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  (and  by 
the  latter  communicated  to  Congress,  and  by  that  body  ordered 
published,*)  says : 

Some  of  the  larger  religious  denominations,  either  in  consequence  of 
their  peculiar  organization,  or  by  reason  of  special  efforts,  maintain  a 
careful  system  of  reports  and  returns,  and  the  statistics  of  such  denom- 
inations are  accordingly  entitled  to  great  consideration. 

Foremost  among  these  is  the  Methodist  Church,  which,  by  reason  of 
its  episcopal  form  of  government  and  its  scheme  of  changing  period- 
ically the  pastors  of  Churches,  is  always  in  possession,  as  nearly  as  it 
would  be  possible  to  effect,  of  the  true  condition  of  its  organization  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  to  a late  date.  Dead  Churches  are  not  allowed 
to  incumber  its  rolls,  and  consequently  the  lists  of  its  several  branches 
present  their  exact  strength  “for  duty.”  This  denomination,  therefore, 
affords  a high  test  of  the  accuracy  of  the  returns  of  the  Census ; and, 
notwithstanding  that  it  presents  as  much  difficulty  in  enumeration  as 
any  other,  the  general  correspondence  between  the  statements  embodied 
in  the  Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the  principal  branches  of 
the  Church,  after  making  allowance  for  the  known  strength  of  certain 
minor  branches  which  do  not  publish  official  returns,  and  the  statistics 

* See  “Ninth  Census  of  the  United  States,”  1870.  Mr.  Walker  is  also  Super- 
intendent of  the  United  States  Census  of  1880,  the  returns  of  which  have  not  yet 
been  published. 


Statistics  of  Methodism. 


709 


of  the  denomination  as  given  in  the  Census,  is,  taking  all  the  States  of 
the  Union  together,  very  decided.  The  slight  differences  that  exist 
are  sufficiently  explained  by  differences  between  the  dates  of  the  returns 
and  by  the  different  rules  of  construction  and  classification  which  would 
naturally  be  adopted  in  doubtful  cases  by  parties  acting  independently 
of  each  other. 

There  are  other  denominations — one  or  two,  notably  the  Baptists,  of 
great  importance — in  which  an  absence  of  central  control  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Churches,  and  the  want  of  a thorough  system  of  reports  and 
returns,  deprive  Church  statistics  of  value.  It  is  in  respect  of  these,  as  a 
whole,  that  the  discrepancies  between  the  claims  of  the  denomination 
and  the  results  of  the  Census  are  greatest.  In  all  such  cases  full  and 
searching  inquiry  has  been  made;  the  recognized  authorities  of  the 
Churches  interested  have  been  consulted,  and  assistant  marshals  have 
been  called  on  to  explain  the  discrepancy,  and  to  review  their  own  state- 
ments. Hundreds  of  letters  have  been  written  from  the  Census  Office 
on  the  subject;  thousands  of  Churches  have  been  inquired  for;  and 
where  differences,  after  all  has  been  done,  still  exist,  it  only  remains  to 
be  said  that  if  this  or  that  denomination  has  as  many  churches  as  it 
claims,  the  agents  of  the  Census  have  not  been  able  to  find  them. 

Mr.  Walker’s  official  report,  after  furnisliiiig  this  kigli  testi- 
mony to  the  correctness  of  our  Methodist  statistics,  proceeds  to 
show  remarkable  discrepancies  between  the  Census  returns  and 
those  made  by  several  of  the  other  denominations.  The 
Baptists,  he  says,  report  for  the  year  1870  a total  of  17,535 
chinches,  while  the  Census  gives  them  only  14,084,  a differ- 
ence of  3,061.  Another  denomination  claims  3,121  churches ; 
the  Census  allows  only  2,887 ; and  another  claims  3,753,  while 
the  Census  allows  only  1,445  ! In  unanswerable  argument 
Mr.  Walker  proceeds  to  show  that  in  each  of  the  cases  the 
disparity  arises  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  from  the  incorrectness  of 
the  returns  made  by  the  Church  compilers. 

My  own  inquiries,  made  with  as  much  thoroughness  as 
possible,  assure  me  of  the  general  correctness  of  Mr.  Walker’s 
conclusions  on  the  subject  referred  to.  I have  now  before  me 
two  Almanacs  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  for  1878. 
Both  seem  to  be  the  work  of  competent  compilers,  and  each, 


710 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


in  the  absence  of  the  other,  being  issued  by  a well-known  and 
respectable  publishing  house  of  that  denomination,  would  be 
regarded  as  otbcially  correct.  And  yet  in  the  reports  of  mem- 
bers, as  given  in  the  Almanacs^  there  is  a discrepancy  of  over 

20.000.  Which  is  correct?  The  troubled  inquirer  is  left  to 
conjecture.  The  annual  register  of  another  denomination, 
issued  since  January  1,  1878,  and  giving  the  latest  statis- 
tical summaries,  contains  two  widely  different  “ official  state- 
ments” concerning  members,  the  discrejDancy  being  nearly 

30.000.  The  statistician  in  search  of  correct  figures  is  con- 
founded by  such  a showing,  and  retires  from  the  investigation 
in  despair. 

In  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal’  Church,  South,  every  pastor  is  required  to  report 
each  year  to  the  conference  secretaries,  over  his  own  signature, 
the  statistics  of  his  charge,  revised  to  date ; and  in  case  of  his 
decease  or  absence  the  Presiding  Elder  is  held  responsible  for 
such  reports.  The  rej)orts  are  usually  prepared  in  duplicate, 
one  of  the  copies  being  forwarded  to  the  Publishing  House  for 
insertion  in  the  “ General  Minutes,”  and  the  other  printed  in 
the  local  conference  minutes,  for  home  circulation.  This 
method  of  reporting  and  pubhshing  each  year,  thus  supple- 
menting the  system  in  each  pastoral  charge  of  keeping  the  reg- 
ister of  members  by  classes,  and  of  revising  the  lists  yearly, 
(and  in  many  charges,  quarterly,  and  even  monthly,)  secures  a 
very  remarkable  degree  of  accuracy  in  the  annual  returns  of 
the  Church.  While  there  are  occasional  and  even  unpardon- 
able mistakes  in  the  reports  of  the  pastors,  and  in  some  in- 
stances in  those  of  the  conference  secretaries,  (made  chiefly  in 
transcribing  them,)  they  are  much  less  frequent  than  some 
of  our  preachers  have  supposed.  Indeed,  the  more  careful 
and  extensive  the  examination  by  any  competent  statis- 
tician, the  more  assuring  will  be  the  conclusion  that  our 
statistics  are,  comparatively,  a marvel  of  general  accuracy  and 
excellence. 


Statistics  ot  Methodism. 


711 


METHODIST  OEGAHIZATIOHS HISTORIC  NOTES. 

The  term  “Methodist”  was  first  applied  to  the  Wesleys  and 
their  associates  in  1729.  The  “ Holy  Club,”  at  Oxford,  of 
which  Charles  Wesley,  then  twenty-one  years  of  age,  was  the 
founder,  was  composed  of  but  four  members,  viz. : Mr.  John 
Wesley,  who  was  fellow  of  Lincoln  College ; Mr.  Charles 
Wesley,  student  of  Christ  Church ; Mr.  Morgan,  commoner 
of  Christ  Church,  the  son  of  an  Irish  gentleman  ; and  Mr. 
Kirkham,  of  Merton  College.  They  were  all  young,  earnest 
students  and  sympathetic  religious  inquirers.  They  met  four 
evenings  a week  for  reading  the  Greek  Testament  and  the 
ancient  classics,  and  on  Sunday  evenings  for  studying  divinity. 
Them  rigid  adherence  to  method  in  their  religious  habits  led 
to  the  appropriation  to  them,  by  outsiders,  of  the  name 
“ Methodists.”  The  reference  to  them  under  this  appellation 
was  made  in  jest  by  a fellow-student. 

Charles  Wesley  dated  his  conversion  on  May  21,  1738; 
John’s  conversion  took  place  three  days  later,  viz..  May  24, 
1738.  The  first  class-meeting  was  held  in  Bristol  on  Thursday 
evening,  April  4,  1839  ; the  first  division  of  the  Methodist 
Society  into  classes  was  made  at  Bristol,  February  15,  1742. 
The  first  Methodist  “United  Society  was  organized  by  Mr. 
John  Wesley  in  London  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1739,” 
and  consisted  of  eight  or  ten  persons.  One  hundred  years 
from  that  date  the  British  Conference  celebrated  the  Centen- 
nial Anniversary  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  the  special  Thanks- 
giving service  being  held  by  direction  of  the  Conference  on 
Friday,  October  25,  1839.*  Mr.  Wesley’s  first  sermon  in  the 
Old  Foundery,  London,  after  its  being  regularly  opened  as  a 
place  for  public  worship,  was  preached  FTovember  11,  1739. 
His  first  watchnight  service  was  held  in  Bristol,  December  31, 
1740.  His  first  Methodist  Conference  was  held  in  London, 

* The  offerings  in  the  British  Wesleyan  Connection  aggregated  about  $1,080,- 
000;  in  the  United  States,  on  the  same  occasion,  the  collections  aggregated  about 
$600,000. 


712 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Voltoie, 


June  25,  1744,  consisting  of  John  and  Charles  "Wesley,  four 
other  ordained  English  clergjnnen,  and  four  lay  preachers.* 


British  Wesle3-an  Statistics,  1880. — Number  of  districts,  (in 
Great  Britain,  34,  in  missions,  31,)  65 ; circuits,  (in  Great  Britain,  721, 
in  missions,  448,)  1,169;  itinerant  ministers,  (in  Great  Britain,  1,914, 
in  missions,  479,)  2,393;  members,  including  probationers,  (in  Great 


Britain,  4Q2,502,  in  missions,  97,421,)  499,923 ; total  ministers  and  lay 
members,  502,319.  The  numbers  were  reported  from  the  various  sec- 


tions  of  the  work  as  follows 

Ministers 

Dis- 

Cir- 

Min- 

Lay 

Proba- 

and 

tricLs. 

ciiits. 

isters. 

Members. 

tioners. 

Members. 

Great  Britain 

34 

721 

1,914 

376,678 

25,824 

404,416 

Prance 

1 

7 

8 

1311 

Germany 

1 

25 

30 

2,117 

Italy 

2 

38 

28 

1,374 

Spain  and  Portugal 

1 

5 

8 

336 

Malta 

1 

1 

2 

100 

South  Ceylon 

1 

44 

40 

2,154 

North  Ceylon 

1 

27 

27 

857 

Madras  District,  India 

1 

31 

22 

582 

- 10,636 

97,903 

Mysore  District 

1 

16 

15 

560 

Calcutta  District 

1 

6 

8 

143 

Lucknow  and  Benares  District. 

1 

5 

6 

64 

Canton  District,  China 

1 

4 

10 

179 

Wuchang  District,  China 

1 

3 

8 

174 

South  Africa 

7 

111 

114 

18,288 

Western  Africa 

3 

53 

45 

13.647 

West  Indies 

7 

72 

108 

46,082^ 

Total 

65 

1,169 

2,393 

463,466 

36,460 

•502,319 

EECAPITULATION. 


Number  of  districts 65 

Number  of  circuits 1,169 

Number  of  itinerant  ministers 2,393 

Number  of  lay  members 463,466 

Number  of  probationers 36,460 

Number  of  ministers  and  lay  members 502,319 

Number  of  Sunday-schools  in  Great  Britain 6,376 

Number  of  Sunday-school  teachers  and  officers 119,911 

Number  of  Sunday-school  scholars 787,143 

Number  of  volumes  in  libraries 744,293 

Expenses  of  Sunday-schools $332,870 

Number  of  Wesleyan  day  schools 851 

Number  of  scholars  in  day  schools 179,900 

Expenses  of  Wesleyan  day  schools $1,088,645 


* The  four  clergymen  were,  John  Hodges,  Henry  Piers,  Samuel  Taylor,  and 
John  Meriton : the  four  lay  preachers  were,  Thomas  Maxfield,  Thomas  Kichards, 
John  Beimett,  and  John  Downes. 


Statistics  of  Methodism. 


713 


The  British  Conference  collections  in  1879  for  Connectional  Funds 
reached  the  following  totals : 


For  Foreign  Missions $675,701 

For  Home  Mission  and  Contingent  Fund 172,724 

For  Theological  Institutions 49,921 

For  School  Fund 45,946 

For  General  Education 42,292 

For  Children’s  Fund 132,500 

For  "Wornout  Ministers’  Fund 116,194 

For  General  Chapel  Fund 49,007 


Total  in  1879  for  Connectional  Funds $1,284,285 

Raised  in  1879  to  relieve  Church  debts $213,275 

Paid  in  1879  for  new  Church  edifices $1,916,220 


The  above  is  exclusive  of  the  sum  raised  directly  for  pastors’  salaries 
and  for  Thanksgiving  Fund. 

Thaxksgitikg  Fttsd. — This  great  Special  Connectional  offering  was 
planned  in  1878,  and  duly  reported  to  the  Conference  in  1879.  At  first 
it  was  proposed  to  raise  the  sum  of  $1,000,000.  This  was  soon  raised 
to  $1,200,000;  later,  to  $1,500,000;  and  still  later,  fixed  by  the  Confer- 
ence, at  $1,575,000!  On  Kovember  3,  1880,  the  subscriptions  to  the 
Fund  had  already  reached  the  magnificent  sum  of  $1,497,470. 

Primitive  aiethodi§t  Cliurch. — The  Primitive  Methodist  Connec- 
tion was  organized  in  England  in  1810.  The  first  Society  was  composed  of 
ten  members,  none  of  whom  had  ever  been  members  of  any  other  Church. 
Hugh  Bourne,  its  founder,  also  began  the  organization  of  the  Primitive 
Church  in  Canada  and  in  the  United  States  in  1844.  The  Sixty-first 
Annual  Conference  w'as  held  at  Grimsby,  England,  commencing  June  9, 
1880.  The  official  numerical  returns  (exclusive  of  Canada)  gave  the 
following  summaries:  17  districts;  174,469  members;  1,041  traveling 
preachers;  14,244  local  preachers;  10,220  class-leaders;  4,072  Connec- 
tional chapels ; 1,846  other  preaching  places ; 3,884  Sunday-schools ; 57,016 
teachers ; 363,336  Sunday-school  scholars,  and  7,772  catechumen  members. 
The  value  of  Church  property  is  over  $10,000,000.  Thirty-six  ministers 
were  received  on  probation.  The  members  in  Australia  and  New  Zea- 
land number  7,689;  in  South  Australia,  2,004;  Victoria,  2,740;  New 
South  Wales,  1,300;  Queensland,  578;  New  Zealand,  1,067. 

The  new  theological  school  at  Manchester  (costing  over  $30,000)  has 
now  twenty-two  ministerial  students.  Thirty-three  candidates  for  the 
ministry  were  accepted  at  Conference, 


714 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Voluble, 


nietlioilist  IVew  Connection  Conference. — This  body  was 
organized  in  England  in  August,  1797.  The  eighty-fourth  Annual  Con- 
ference was  held  in  Staffordshire,  England,  June  14,  1880.  Tlie  statis- 
tics show : 


COTINTBIEB. 

Chapels. 

Societies. 

Circuit 

Preachers. 

Local 

Preachers. 

Members. 

Probationers. 

Sunday- 

Schools. 

Teachers. 

M 

'o 

03 

England 

426 

415 

166 

1,086 

25,393 

3,755 

425 

10,796 

76,126 

Ireland 

9 

8 

8 

12 

699 

102 

8 

116 

609 

Australia 

2 

2 

2 

1 

120 

14 

2 

25 

330 

Cliina  

41 

26 

4 

39 

809 

260 

14 

14 

185 

Totals  in  the  Connection . . 

418 

451 

180 

1,138 

27,021 

4,131 

449 

10,951 

77,250 

A Thanksgiving  Fund  of  $100,000  was  inaugurated,  and  $10,000  of 
it  was  subscribed  at  the  Conference.  It  was  proposed  to  give  $37,500 
to  the  Home  Mission  Fund,  and  the  same  amount  to  establish  a Con- 
nectional  Loan  Fund.  There  are  five  English  missionaries  employed  in 
China,  one  of  them  a medical  missionary,  assisted  by  twenty-eight  Chi- 
nese assistant  missionaries  and  catechists. 

IJnited  Methocli§t  Free  Clmrclies. — This  organization  was 
formed  in  England  in  1857.  It  was  composed  of  the  Wesleyan  Method- 
ist Association  (organized  in  1836)  and  a large  number  of  Wesleyan  Re- 
formers, who  dated  their  beginning  in  1827.  The  following  statistics 
were  reported  at  the  recent  Annual  Assembly:  Itinerant  ministers, 
including  supernumeraries,  431;  local  preachers,  3,391;  leaders,  4,349; 
members,  73,044;  members  on  trial,  7,433;  Sunday-schools,  1,345;  Sun- 
day-school teachers,  26,919;  scholars,  189,038;  missionary  contributions 
in  1880,  about  $90,000. 

Sible  Christians. — This  branch  of  British  Methodism  was  founded 
in  Cornwall,  England,  in  1815,  by  William  O’Bryan,  a local  preacher. 
In  doctrine  and  Connectional  polity  they  are  similar  to  the  Wesleyans. 
They  began  their  organizations  in  Canada  in  1833,  and  have  since  organ- 
ized an  Annual  Conference  there,  with  a publishing  house  and  period- 
icals at  Bowmanville,  Ontario.  The  numerical  returns  report  84  circuits 
and  home  missions  in  England  and  114  abroad;  307  itinerant  preachers; 
1,883  local  preachers;  33,051  lay  members;  53,450  Sunday-school  schol- 
ars; and  9,860  teachers. 

Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists. — These  are  the  outgrowth  of 
the  societies  organized  by  the  followers  of  Whitefield  in  1743.  They 


Statistics  of  Methodism. 


715 


are  Wesleyan  in  general  usages,  having  conferences,  etc.,  but  are  Calvin- 
istic  in  doctrine,  and  hence  are  not  classed  with  Arminian  Methodists. 
In  1879  they  reported  565  ministers  and  119,809  lay  members. 

Wesleyan  Reform  Union. — This  smallest  of  the  English  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  branches  was  organized  in  1848.  The  returns  of  1879 
report  19  preachers  and  7,623  lay  members. 

Methodism  in  Ireland.  — Methodism  was  introduced  into  Ire- 
land in  1747  by  Thomas  Williams,  who  crossed  the  channel  and  preached 
in  the  streets  of  Dublin.  A little  later  in  the  same  year  (August  9,  1747) 
Mr.  Wesley  preached  his  first  sermon  in  Dublin.  Irish  missions  were 
commenced  by  Dr.  Coke  in  1799.  Irish  mission  schools  were  established 
in  1823.  Charles  Wesley  bought  the  first  “preaching-house”  in  Dublin 
soon  after  John’s  first  visit.  It  was  at  “Doljohin’s  barn,”  near  the  pres- 
ent Cork-street  Chapel.  The  first  Sunday-school  was  held  in  Cork  in 
1791.  The  One  Hundred  and  Eleventh  Irish  Wesleyan  Conference  (the 
ninety-sixth  annual)  was  held  in  Dublin,  June  15-25.  1880.  The  next 
Conference  is  to  be  held  in  Cork,  June  17,  1881,  and  is  to  be  composed  of 
one  hundred  ministers  and  one  hundred  laymen. 

Statistics. — Preachers,  247;  districts,  10;  circuits,  137;  lay  members, 
25,186;  Sunday-schools,  309,  with  2,754  teachers  and  24,440  scholars; 
collection  for  Home  Mission  and  Conference  Fund,  $17,591 ; for  General 
Mission  Fund,  $27,668;  for  Auxiliary  Fund,  $3,026;  for  Chapel  Fund, 
$2,296;  for  General  Educational  Fund,  $979;  total  Conuectional  col- 
lections, $51,560.  Wesley  College,  Dublin,  (built  at  a cost  of  $102,475,) 
has  237  pupils.  Belfast  College  has  288  pupils.  The  Conference  resolved 
to  raise  a Thanksgiving  Fund  of  $100,000,  to  be  appropriated  thus: 
Methodist  Union  Guarantee  Fund,  $10,000 ; Home  Mission  and  Contin- 
gent Fund,  $40,000;  Methodist  Orphan  Fund,  $5,000;  Fund  for  the 
Education  of  Ministers’  Daughters,  $15,000;  to  relieve  debt  of  Wesley 
College,  Dublin,  $20,000 ; for  theological  department  in  Methodist  Col- 
lege, Belfast,  $5,000;  for  foreign  missions,  $5,000. 

Methodism  in  Australasia. — The  first  Methodist  mission  was 
opened  in  New  South  Wales  (then  a penal  colony  of  Great  Britain)  in 
August,  1815.  The  first  Annual  Conference  was  formed  in  January, 
1855.  The  Australasian  General  Conference  was  organized  in  May,  1875. 
The  work  is  now  divided  into  four  Conferences,  holding  their  annual  ses- 
sions in  January.  Their  sessions  in  1880  were  held  as  follows:  New 
South  Wales  and  Queensland,  Sydney,  January  21;  Victoria  and  Tas- 
mania, at  Melbourne,  January  21 ; South  Australia,  at  Adelaide,  Jan- 
uary 20;  New  Zealand,  at  Dunledin,  January  21.  The  statistics  give  the 
45 


716 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


following  totals:  Ministers,  423;  local  preachers,  3,763;  Cliurch  mem- 
bers, 66,905;  adherents,  331,862;  chapels,  2,128;  Sunday-schools,  2,478; 
Sunday-school  teachers,  13,648;  Sunday-school  scholars,  134,183. 

Included  in  these  summaries  are  the  following  totals  reported  from 
the  four  missionary  districts  of  Fiji,  Samoa,  the  Friendly  Islands,  and 
New  Guinea,  viz.:  16  European  and  78  native  ministers;  30,999  Church 
members;  125,472  adherents;  42,950  Sunday-school  scholars;  1,003 
churches;  and  397  other  preaching-places.  There  are  four  colleges: 
Newing  College,  New  South  Wales;  Horton  College,  Tasmania;  Prince 
Alfred  College,  South  Australia;  and  Wesley  College,  (Theological 
Institute,)  New  Zealand.  The  next  General  Conference  is  to  be  held  in 
Adelaide,  in  May,  1881. 

The  above  are  exclusive  of  the  returns  of  the  other  Methodist 
CImrches.  The  recent  census  of  New  Zealand  gave  a total  Methodist 
population  in  that  colony  alone  of  35,975,  of  which  3,676  were  Primitive 
Methodists. 

methodism  in  Sweden. — The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  work 
was  introduced  into  Sweden  by  John  P.  Larsson,  under  the  supervision  of 
Eev.  O.  P.  Petersen,  in  1854.  Owing  to  the  law  against  holding  public 
religious  services  outside  of  the  State  Church,  no  organization  was 
effected  until  1864,  when  a mission  was  begun  at  Wisby,  in  the  island 
of  Gottland.  In  1867  the  work  opened  in  Stockholm.  The  following 
are  the  statistical  summaries  for  1880:  Districts,  3;  native  traveling 
preachers,  61;  native  local  preachers,  79;  lay  members,  7,824;  average 
attendance  at  public  worship,  16,475;  baptisms  during  the  year,  200; 
Sunday-schools,  128;  scholars,  6,436;  church  edifices,  47;  halls  and 
other  preaciiing-places,  32;  value  of  churclies,  462,325  crowns;  collec- 
tions for  Missionary  Society,  6, 108  crowns ; for  other  benevolent  soci- 
eties, 625  crowns;  for  self-support,  10,442  crowns;  for  church  building 
and  repairing,  9,385  crowns;  total,  26,560  crowns. 

metliodism  in  France.  — The  first  Wesleyan  Societies  were 
formed  in  1790.  The  first  French  Methodist  district  meeting  was  held 
at  Perrieres,  April  20,  1820.  The  French  Conference  was  organized  in 
1852.  The  twenty-eighth  Conference  was  held  at  Le  Vigean,  July  1, 1880. 
Statistics:  Preachers,  29;  local  preachers,  92;  evangelists,  16;  class- 
leaders,  92;  lay  members,  1,844;  day  schools,  9,  with  355  pupils;  Sun- 
day-schools,- 49,  with  287  teachers  and  2,559  scholars;  number  of 
attendants,  10,622;  chapels,  162. 

Methodism  in  Germany. — The  first  Wesleyan  preacher,  C.  G. 
Muller,  organized  societies  in  Wurtemburg  in  1830.  The  Methodist 


Statistics  of  Methodism. 


717 


Episcopal  Church  was  introduced  into  Bremen  in  November,  1849,  by 
Dr.  L.  S.  Jacoby.  His  first  sermon  was  preached  December  23,  1849. 
The  first  Sunday-school  was  organized  in  Bremen,  and  the  German  Book 
Concern  started,  in  1850.  In  1856  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Conference 
of  Germany  and  Switzerland  was  organized  by  Dr.  Jacoby,  and  included 
9 traveling  and  7 local  preachers,  428  members,  and  99  probationers. 
The  first  number  of  Der  Evangelist  was  issued  May  21,  1850.  In  1854 
Der  Kinderfreund,  the  first  Sunday-school  paper,  was  started. 

The  statistical  summaries  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Conference  of 
Germany  and  Switzerland  for  1880  are  as  follows:  Itinerant  preachers, 
68;  local  preachers,  59;  members  in  full,  9,444;  probationers,  2,377; 
total  lay  members,  11,821;  baptisms  during  the  year,  846;  Sunday- 
schools,  372;  ofiicers  and  teachers,  1,522;  Sunday-school  scholars, 
18,716. 

Our  English  Wesleyan  brethren  have  one  district  in  Germany,  embrac- 
ing 25  pastoral  charges,  30  traveling  preachers,  35  lay  preachers,  and 
2,117  lay  members. 

Methodism  in  Norway. — The  first  Methodist  missionary  from 
the  United  States,  O.  P.  Petersen,  reached  Norway  in  1853.  The 
Churches  were  organized  into  a Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  1876.  The  statistics  in  1880  were  as  follows:  Circuits,  27; 
preachers,  32;  local  preachers,  16;  full  lay  members,  2,588;  probation- 
ers, 409;  total  lay  members,  2,997;  baptisms  during  the  year,  221; 
churches,  22;  parsonages,  3;  value  of  churches  and  parsonages,  310,518 
crowns;  Sunday-schools,  42 ; ofiicers  and  teachers,  311;  scholars,  2,285. 

Methodism  in  Denmark. — The  mission  work  was  successfully 
organized  in  1858  by  Eev.  C.  Willerup  at  Fredericshald.  There  were  in 
1879 : Missions,  1 ; local  preachers,  4 ; preaching-places,  44 ; lay  mem- 
bers, 712;  baptisms  during  the  year,  39;  Sunday-schools,  14,  with  59 
teachers,  and  696  scholars.  The  Conference  collections  aggregate  $2,044. 

Methodism  in  Italy. — Methodism  was  first  introduced  into  Italy 
by  the  preachers  of  the  French  Conference  in  1852,  and  a Society  was 
organized  at  Turin.  The  British  Wesleyan  missionary  work  was  begun 
in  1861,  and  that  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  1872.  The 
latter  Church  reported  in  October,  1880:  Missionaries,  1,  assistant  mis- 
sionaries, 1,  native  preachers,  16,  total  preachers,  18;  full  lay  mem- 
bers, 570,  probationers,  245,  total  preachers  and  lay  members,  833: 
churches,  1,  (in  Rome,)  valued  at  $19,000  ; parsonages,  1,  valued  at 
$3,000;  Sunday-schools,  9;  number  of  preaching-places,  14.  The  mis- 
sion publishes  one  paper,  “La  Fiaccola,”  a montlily.  Including  the 


718 


The  Wesley  Mejioeial  Volume. 


Wesleyans  there  were  in  1880  in  Italy  48  Methodist  ministers,  2,932  lay 
members,  and  44  churches.  Two  of  these  are  in  Rome  and  three  in 
Naples. 

mietliodiism  in  Bulg'aria. — The  Methodist  mission  work  in  Bul- 
garia was  opened  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  1857.  Revs. 
Wesley  Prettyman  and  Albert  L.  Long  were  the  first  missionaries.  The 
statistics  of  1879  report  2 American  and  4 native  Bulgarian  ministers, 
33  lay  members,  and  2 Sunday-schools. 

nietliodism  in  India. — The  British  Wesleyan  Missionaiy  Society 
opened  its  first  mission  in  Ceylon  in  1813,  and  in  India  proper  in  1817. 
The  present  statistics  of  that  society’s  work  are  given  on  page  704.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  missionary  work  in  North  India  was  opened  by 
Rev.  William  Butler,  in  North  Bengal,  in  1856.  Rev.  William  Taylor 
opened  a new  mission  in  Bombay  in  1872;  and  later,  initiated  extensive 
Church  work  in  the  leading  cities  of  Southern  India.  So  rapidly  has  the 
work  spread  in  India  that  it  is  now  embraced  in  two  Annual  Conferences, 
reporting  in  1879  a total  of  6 districts,  46  missionaries,  1,780  probation- 
ers, 2,907  members;  total  lay  members,  4,687:  871  baptisms  during  the 
year;  38  churches,  and  59  parsonages,  valued  at  $222,072;  205  Sunday- 
schools,  with  637  teachers  and  8,993  members;  196  day  schools,  with 
340  teachers  and  7,097  scholars. 

Methodism  in  China. — The  Methodist  Episcopal  mission  work 
was  opened  in  1847  by  M.  C.  White  and  J.  D.  Collins;  that  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  was  opened  in  1848  by  C.  Taylor,  M.D., 
and  Revs.  B.  Jenkins  and  W.  G.  E.  Cunnyngham;  that  of  the  British 
Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  in  1852;  that  of  the  United  Methodist  New 
Connection  in  1872.  The  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  have  also  a 
successful  mission  in  China. 

Statistics. — In  1879  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  reported  3 missious', 
viz. : Foochow,  Central  China,  and  North  China,  with  25  American  mis- 
sionaries and  12  assistants;  86  native  f)reachers;  12  Bible  women;  2,370 
lay  members  and  probationers;  266  baptized  children;  25  day  schools, 
with  370  pupils;  53  Sunday-schools,  with  907  pupils;  59  chapels  and 

18  parsonages,  valued  at  $54,901.  In  1880  the  British  Wesleyan 
Church  reported  2 districts  (Canton  and  Wuchang)  and  6 circuits,  with 

19  preachers  and  353  full  members.  In  1879  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  reported  in  China,  5 missionaries,  8 native  preachers, 
2 women  missionaries,  6 Bible  women,  19  Sunday-school  and  11  day- 
school  teachers,  97  Church  members,  and  186  scholars  in  Sunday-schools 
and  105  in  day  schools. 


Statistics  or  Methodism, 


719 


Methodiim  in  Japan. — In  1873  Rev.  Dr.  R.  8.  Maclay  as  super- 
intendent, assisted  by  Revs.  J.  C.  Davison,  J.  Soper,  M.  C.  Harris,  and 
I.  H.  Correll,  organized  the  mission  work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  Japan,  with  Yokohama  as  head-quarters.  The  statistics  of 

1879  gave  the  following  summaries:  Missionaries,  8;  assistant  mission- 
aries, 5 ; native  helpers,  40 ; total  agents  of  the  Missionary  Society,  53 : 
lady  missionaries  of  the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Ej)iscopal  Church,  5,  with  5 native  assistants;  lay  members 
and  probationers,  620;  day  schools,  7,  with  346  pupils;  Sunday-schools, 
7,  with  773  pupils;  churches,  5,  valued  at  $12,500;  parsonages,  5,  val- 
ued at  $17,500. 

The  Methodist  Church  in  Canada  has  also  opened  a prosperous  mission 
work  at  Tokio  and  Shidzuoka,  Japan;  but  the  latest  reports  of  that 
work  have  not  been  received. 

Metliodism  in  Africa. — The  British  Wesleyans  sent  their  first 
missionaries  to  Sierra  Leone  in  1811,  and  to  South  Africa  in  1814.  In 

1880  the  minutes  of  that  Church  reported  a total  of  7 districts.  111  cir- 
cuits, 114  preachers,  and  31,935  full  members.  The  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  organized  its  work  in  Liberia  in  1833.  The  Liberia  Confer- 
ence returns  of  1879  show  4 districts;  18  preachers;  47  local  preachers; 
2,110  lay  members;  29  churches  and  3 parsonages,  valued  at  $22,925; 
30  Sunday-schools,  with  221  teachers  and  1,560  scholars.  The  United 
Methodist  Free  Churches  have  also  a flourishing  mission  work  in 
Africa,  but  the  recent  statistics  are  not  in  hand. 

ftlethodlsm  in  Mexico. — Under  appointment  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  Rev.  Dr.  William  Butler  organized  the  mission  work 
in  the  city  of  Mexico  in  the  spring  of  1873.  In  the  same  year  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  entered  the  same  field,  the  early  work 
being  supervised  by  Bishop  Keener.  In  1879  the  Methodist  Episcoijal 
statistical  summaries  were  as  follows:  Missionaries,  6;  assistant  mission- 
aries, 6 ; missionaries  of  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  4,  assisted 
by  4 Bible  women;  missionary  teachers,  12;  Mexican  preachers,  13;  lay 
members,  544  ; pupils  of  orphan  school,  70;  day-school  teachers,  24, 
with  473  scholars ; Sunday-school  teachers,  33,  with  479  scholars ; the- 
ological students,  7 ; churches  owned  by  the  mission,  5 ; other  preaching- 
halls,  14;  parsonages,  5;  value  of  Church  property,  $94,400;  collections 
during  year,  $4,253. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  reported  in  1879  in  the  Cen- 
tral Mexican  Mission  30  stations,  14  preachers,  531  members,  and  15 
Sunday-schools,  8 day  schools,  with  186  Sunday-school  scholars  and 


720 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


105  scholars  in  day-schools.  In  its  Central  Mexican  Mission,  (along 
the  Rio  Grande,)  13  stations,  14  missionaries,  651  members,  4,800  church 
attendants,  25  Sunday-schools,  and  472  scholars. 

nietliodism  in  Soutli  America.— The  first  Methodist  Church 
was  planted  in  Buenos  Ayres  in  1835  by  Rev.  F.  E.  Pitts.  There  are 
now  three  principal  missions,  viz.  : at  Buenos  Ayres,  Montevideo,  and 
Rosario.  The  latest  summaries  show  3 missionaries  and  3 assistants; 
6 missionaries  sent  by  the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society.  There 
were  also  3 native  preachers  and  6 local  preachers;  693  lay  members; 
3 churches  and  1 parsonage,  valued  at  $61,000;  12  Sunday-schools,  with 
58  officers  and  teachers  and  770  scholars.  In  1879  Rev.  William  Taylor 
visited  the  western  coast  of  South  America,  and  opened  schools  and 
missions  in  several  of  the  principal  towns  in  Peru  and  Chili,  and  a year 
later  repeated  this  work  in  Brazil.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  has  stations  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Piracruca,  with  two  mission- 
aries and  36  members. 

Metho(li§m  in  the  United  States. — The  first  Methodist  Soci- 
ety in  America  was  organized  in  New  York  in  October,  1776,  by  Philip 
Embury,  a Wesleyan  local  preacher.  Not  far  from  the  same  time 
Robert  Strawbridge,  also  a local  preacher,  began  preaching  in  Frederick 
County,  Md.  Two  years  later,  on  the  last  Sunday  in  October,  1778,  the 
John-street  Church  (then  named  Wesley  Chapel)  was  dedicated.  The 
present  Methodist  organizations  in  the  United  States,  with  their  latest 
reported  statistical  summaries,  are  briefly  represented  below. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Chukch. — Organized  out  of  the  previous  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Societies  at  the  “ Christmas  Conference,”  1784.  Statistics 
for  1879 : Annual  Conferences,  (in  1880,)  95  ; missions  not  included  in  An- 
nual Conferences,  8 home  missions  and  9 foreign  missions;  bishops,  13; 
itinerant  preachers,  11,636;  local  preachers,  12,475;  lay  members  and 
probationers,  1,700,302;  adult  baptisms  duidng  1879,  63,218,  infant 
baptisms  during  year,  56,565,  total  baptisms  for  year,  119,783;  church 
edifices,  16,955;  value  of  churches,  $62,520,417;  parsonages,  5,689; 
value  of  parsonages,  $8,435,092;  total  value  of  churches  and  parsonages, 
$70,955,509;  Sunday-schools,  20,359;  officers  and  teachers,  217,967; 
Sunday-school  scholars,  1,449,315 ; missionary  receipts  for  the  year, 
$551,859  30;  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  $66,843  69;  Church 
Extension  Board,  $110,653  98;  Freedmen’s  Aid  Society,  $75,260  76; 
total  Conference  collections,  $882,278  91. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Chijech,  South. — This  Church  was  organized 
at  a convention  of  delegates  from  the  Southern  Conferences  of  the  Meth- 


Statistics  of  Methodism. 


721 


odist  Episcopal  Clmrch,  held  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  May  1,  1845. 
The  first  General  Conference  was  held  in  1846.  Statistics  for  1879: 
Bishops,  6;*  Annual  Conferences,  39;  missions  not  included  in  Annual 
Conferences,  3;  itinerant  preachers,  3,867;  local  preachers,  5,832;  white 
members,  816,294,  colored  members,  l,251,t  Indian  members,  4,931, 
total  members,  822,476  ; total  preachers  and  lay  members,  832,175 : 
adult  baptisms  during  year,  49,798,  infant  baptisms  during  year,  28,011, 
total  baptisms  during  year,  77,809;  Sunday-schools,  8,941;  Sunday- 
school  teachers  and  oflicers,  58,528;  Sunday-school  scholars,  421,137; 
collections  for  Conference  Claimants,  $66,833  62;  collections  for  mis- 
sions, $129,713  47.  The  Church  South  has  missions  in  China,  Mexico, 
and  Brazil.  (See  p.  711.) 

Other  Methodist  Episcopal  Churches  in  the  United  States. — 
The  space  allowed  for  this  article  compels  the  writer  to  omit  the  his- 
toric and  statistical  notes  prepared  concerning  the  other  branches  of  the 
great  Methodist  family  in  the  United  States,  except  such  as  are  given  in 
the  General  Summary  of  Metliodist  Churches  on  page  714. 

Methodist  Churches  of  Canada. — In  1828  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  Canada  organized  in  a separate  jurisdiction  from 
the  Church  in  the  United  States.  The  Canada  Wesleyan  Conference  in 

1833  changed  its  polity  and  became  affiliated  with  the  British  Wesleyan 
Conference.  In  1874,  by  a union  of  the  Wesleyan  and  New  Connection 
Conferences  with  the  Wesleyan  Conference  of  Eastern  British  America, 
the  Methodist  Church  op  Canada  was  organized.  The  statistics  of 
1880  show  6 Annual  Conferences,  with  a total  of  1,182  traveling  minis- 
ters, 861  circuits,  122,627  lay  members,  3,486  preaching-places,  1,802 
Sunday-schools,  16,216  officers  and  teachers,  and  126,818  scholars. 
Soon  after  the  Canada  Conference  (in  1833)  became  affiliated  with  the 
British  Wesleyan  Conference,  about  one  twelfth  of  the  body,  with  a 
number  of  preachers,  declined  connection  with  the  latter  body,  and  in 

1834  reorganized  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada.  The 
statistics  for  1880  furnish  the  following  summaries:  Annual  Confer- 
ences, 3 ; bishops,  1 , districts,  10 ; itinerant  preachers,  281 ; local 
preachers,  299;  deaths,  307;  members,  28,070;  church  edifices,  536; 
parsonages,  130;  value  of  churches  and  parsonages,  $1,372,510;  number 
of  Sunday-schools,  423;  officers  and  teachers,  3,591;  scholars,  25,119. 


♦Exclusive  of  Bishop  Doggett,  who  died  October  25,  1880. 
f Most  of  the  colored  members  have  been  absorbed  in  the  Colored  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 


722 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volhjie. 


GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  METHODISTS. 

The  following  summaries  have  been  compiled  from  the  latest  official 
statistics  reported  by  the  several  bi-anches  of  the  great  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist family.  Those  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  are  to  January 
1,  1880,  and  include  the  official  numerical  returns  of  the  autumnal 
Conferences  of  1879.  Those  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
are  for  1879.  Those  of  the  Canadian,  British,  and  affiliating  Confer- 
ences are  for  1880.  In  two  or  tliree  of  the  Churches  the  numbers  of 
local  preachers  are  “estimated ; ’’  but  in  each  of  those  by  distinguished 
members  of  large  observation  in  the  respective  denominations. 

I.  Episcopal  Methodists  in  United  States 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church 

Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

Evangelical  Association 

United  Brethren 

Union  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. . 


Total  Episcopal  Methodists  in  United  States.  ; 

21,833 

25,265 

3,316,154 

II.  Non-Episcopal  Methodists  in  United  States 

Methodist  Protestant  Church 

1,314 

925 

113,405 

American  Wesleyan  Church 

250 

200 

25,000 

Free  Methodist  Church 

271 

328 

12,642 

Primitive  Methodist  Church 

196 

162 

3,210 

Independent  Methodist  Church 

24 

12,550 

Total  Non-Bpiscopal  Methodists  in  U.  S 

2,056 

1,610 

166,807 

III.  Methodists  in  Canada. 

The  Methodist  Church  of  Canada 

1,190 

3,537 

122,955 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada 

282 

299 

28,070 

Primitive  Methodist  Church 

96 

270 

8,222 

Bible  Christian  Church 

73 

197 

7.254 

British  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  (Colored). . . . 

41 

20 

2,100 

Total  Methodists  in  Canada 

1,682 

4,323 

168,601 

IV.  Methodists  in  Great  Britain  and  Missions. 

British  Wesleyan  Methodists  in  Great  Britain. . . . 

“ “ Missions 

1,914 

18,711 

402,520 

485 

5,600 

96,824 

Primitive  Methodists 

1,142 

15,517 

182,691 

New  Connection  Methodists 

177 

1,149 

30,853 

Wesleyan  Reform  Union 

18 

611 

7,728 

United  Free  Methodists 

431 

3,469 

79,477 

Bible  Christians  (including  Australia) 

234 

1,874 

21,292 

Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodists 

565 

1,560 

119,809 

Total  Methodists  in  Great  Britain  and  Missions 

4,966 

48,691 

940,194 

Itinerant 

Local 

Lay- 

Ministers. 

Preachers. 

Members. 

11,636 

12,475 

1,700,302 

3,549 

5,832 

828,301 

1,418 

3,168 

214,808 

1,500 

2,500 

190,900 

638 

683 

112,300 

839 

585 

112,197 

2,152 

154,796 

101 

22 

2,550 

Statistics  of  Methodism.  723 


Y.  Wesleyan  Aefiliating  Conferences. 

Itinerant 

Ministers. 

Local 

Preachers. 

Lay 

Members. 

Irish  Wesleyan  Conference 

244 

1,800 

25,186 

French  Wesleyan  Conference 

29 

1,844 

Australasian  Conference 

433 

3,771 

69,297 

Total  in  Wesleyan  Affiliating  Conferences. . . 

706 

5,571 

96,327 

Grand  Total  of  Ministers  and  Lay  Members. 

Methodists  in  Churches  in  United  States 

23,888 

26,875 

3,482,961 

“ Dominion  of  Canada 

1,682 

4.323 

168,611 

“ Great  Britain  and  Missions 

4,966 

48,691 

940,194 

“ Affiliating  Conferences 

706 

5,571 

96,327 

Grand  total  of  Methodists  in  1880 

31,242 

85,460 

4,688,093 

Note. — Total  Methodist  population,  (estimated,)  23,440,465. 


GENEEAL  COMPAEATIVE  EELIGIOUS  STATISTICS  IN  UNITED  STATES. 

Ministers.  Lay  Members. 


All  Methodists  in  the  United  States,  Jannefry  1,  1879 23,888  3,506,891 

All  Baptists  in  the  United  States 20,292  2,656,221 

All  Presbyterians  ill  the  United  States 8,301  897,598 

All  Lutherans  in  the  United  States 2,976  808,428 

All  Conp:regationalists  (including  Unitarians) 3,496  375,654 

All  Protestant  Episcopalians  (including  Eeformed  Episcopal)  3,147  321,367 

All  Universalists 711  37,500 


Note. — In  the  number  of  Ministers  here  given  the  Local  Preachers  are  not  included. 
The  Methodist  Local  Preachers  (many  of  whom  are  ordained,  and  a large  number  have 
been  pastors  of  Churches)  number  in  the  United  States  25,498.  The  total  number  of  Meth- 
odist preachers  in  the  United  States  in  1879  (not  including  other  countries)  was  48,526. 


STEENGTH  OF  METHODISM  BY  STATES. 

The  space  in  this  volume  appropriated  to  this  article  will 
not  permit  the  insertion  of  tabulated  statistics  showing  the 
strength  of  the  Churches  in  the  several  States  in  the  United 
States  in  comparison  with  other  denominations.  The  writer 
has  before  him  the  official  “ Census  of  the  State  of  l^ew  York 
for  1875,”  recently  issued  by  the  State  authorities  at  Albany, 
and  as  the  figures  therein  were  compiled  by  impartial 
agents,  and  are  later  by  five  years  than  any  similar  statistics 
from  other  States,  they  are  selected  and  inserted  in  full.  They 
show  the  relative  strength  of  the  various  religions  denomina- 
tions in  the  Empire  State,  and  indicate  a fair  average  class  of 
facts  which  would  appear  in  similar  statistics  from  a consider- 
able number  of  the  great  States  of  the  Union.  Indeed,  in 
some  of  the  States,  especially  in  the  South  and  West,  the 


724  The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 

aggregate  strength  of  Methodism  would  appear  to  even  greater 
relative  advantage  than  it  does  in  the  State  of  New  York. 


Denominations  in  State. 

Organ- 

izati’nb 

Edi- 

fices. 

Sittings. 

Member- 

ship. 

Property. 

Annual 
Amo’nt  Paid 
for  Salaries 
of  Clergy, 

Ch’ch  Edifices, 
with  Lots. 

Other  Real 
Estate, 

Methodist  Episcopal 

1,785 

1,766 

619.382 

180,782 

$14,566,397 

$2,428,475 

$1,137,886 

African  M.  E 

48 

47 

14,065 

8,261 

274,800 

16,400 

19,095 

African  M.  E.  Zion 

5 

5 

2,075 

111 

20,700 

600 

2,100 

Calviuistic  Metliodist. . . . 

IT 

17 

4.975 

1.090 

74,51)0 

8,060 

6,294 

Evangelical  Association.. 

60 

60 

17,595 

5,786 

437,200 

49,6.10 

83,935 

Independent  Methodist.. 

1 

1 

175 

5 

1,000 

50 

150 

Methodist  Protestant 

15 

15 

8,531 

884 

28,300 

8,245 

5,005 

Primitive  Methodist 

2 

2 

900 

205 

48,500 

8,000 

1,500 

Reformed  Methodist 

5 

5 

1,250 

217 

7.800 

1,700 

1,800 

United  Brethren  in  Christ 

4 

4 

870 

130 

4,400 

1,500 

750 

Free  Methodist 

89 

85 

22,685 

8,716 

234,260 

27,700 

80,538 

Wesleyan  Methodist 

52 

52 

13,175 

2,713 

148,300 

15,850 

17,464 

Total  Methodist 

2,033 

2,059 

700,678 

198,900 

$15,845,657 

$2,561,120 

$1,255,016 

Baptist 

823 

812 

813,653 

100,886 

$8,371,800 

$643,375 

$630,391 

Freewill  Baptist 

109 

102 

29,850 

6,051 

284,600 

43,225 

38,190 

Seventh-Day  Baptist 

26 

26 

8,305 

8,335 

76,150 

5,475 

10,178 

Total  Baptist 

958 

940 

351,'80S 

109,972 

$8,732,550 

$697,076 

$678,759 

Presbyterian 

716 

708 

338.442 

111,660 

$16,590,300 

$2,523,870 

$950,770 

United  Presbyterian 

65 

55 

24,970 

9,015 

564,100 

86.625 

61,710 

Reformed  Presbyterian . . 

23 

23 

9,250 

3,023 

356,700 

9.075 

28,650 

Total  Presbyterian 

794 

786 

872,662 

123,698 

$17,511,100 

$2,619,570 

$1,041,130 

22 

22 

10,650 

1,583 

846.100 

14,850 

24 

24 

6,750 

‘987 

68.650 

700 

Not  specified 

45 

44 

11J05 

2,394 

221,200 

14,900 

91 

90 

29,105 

4,964 

$635,950 

$30,450 

Protestant  Episcopal .... 

561 

552 

226,092 

78,515 

21,616,750 

2,984,620 

810,872 

Congregational 

258 

257 

107,847 

80,922 

3,210,300 

402,700 

265,045 

Kefo’ecUDut.)Ch.  in  U.S. 

237 

235 

109,815 

85,397 

5,770,298 

2,168,325 

801,240 

Evangelical  Lutheran 

201 

200 

77,781 

84,439 

2,010,000 

458,860 

186.658 

Union 

147 

147 

43,515 

7,747 

682.100 

20,950 

87,796 

Universalist 

115 

113 

41,978 

9,651 

1,413,400 

88,300 

96,280 

Christian  Connection  .... 

102 

100 

28,555 

6.270 

247.920 

25,500 

34,991 

Carapbellites 

28 

26 

8,840 

2,8,30 

111,700 

700 

15,265 

Second  Adventists 

14 

13 

2,992 

609 

28,150 

3.425 

8,250 

United  Evangelical  Ch'ch 

13 

13 

5,970 

3,699 

68,300 

6,500 

8,425 

Reformed  Church  in  U.S. 

11 

11 

4.610 

1,821 

85,000 

18,900 

9,300 

10 

16 

8,560 

2,477 

817,000 

46,000 

Moravian 

10 

10 

2,515 

663 

163,400 

20,250 

5;300 

TrueReformedDutch  Ch. 

7 

7 

2,120 

244 

73,500 

2,000 

8,900 

New  Jerusalem  Church. . 

7 

6 

1,575 

200 

158,800 

5,000 

8,100 

8 

8 

2.000 

326 

35,000 

2 

2 

880 

40,000 

2,900 

Seventh-Day  Adventists. 

2 

2 

850 

84 

5,600 

650 

2 

2 

800 

61 

700 

Advent  Chris.  Association 

1 

1 

800 

53 

4,500 

600 

Roman  Catholic 

613 

609 

887,226 

* 518,714 

18,301,590 

4,866,490 

467,814 

Jewish 

46 

43 

25,446 

5,775 

3,536,500 

65,500 

79,590 

Grand  total  in  New  York 

6,320 

6.243 

2,537,470 

1,177,470 

$101,105,765 

$16,491,385 

$5,308,231 

* The  Roman  Catholic  Church  counts  in  its  membership  the  whole  of  its  population — includ- 
ing men,  women,  and  children,  irrespective  of  practical  religion  or  age.  Hence  the  numerical 
returns  of  that. denomination  are  not  to  be  considered  in  any  equitable  comparison  between  the 
leading  Churches  of  the  country. 

The  remarkable  relative  success  of  Methodism  thus  far  in 
this  and  in  other  countries  imposes  upon  her  ministers  and 
members  corresponding  obhgations  of  continued  loyalty  to  her 
“ doctrines,”  “ polity,”  and  “ usages.”  Hie  signis  vmcemus. 


APPENDIX. 


In  1875,  while'the  Rev.  Alexander  M.  Wynn  was  pastor  of  the 
Wesley  Church,  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  he  happily  conceived  the  idea 
of  building  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church.  Mr.  Wynn  early 
conferred  with  his  presiding  elder,  the  editor  of  this  volume,  who 
gave  to  the  scheme  his  unqualified  commendation.  Its  warm 
approval  by  the  Quarterly  Conference  composed  of  Wesley 
Church  and  Trinity  Chitrch,  was  soon  most  heartily  given.  It 
was,  from  the  first,  decided  to  make  the  enterprise  a connectional 
and  ecumenical  one,  and  that  all  Methodists,  who  honor  the  name 
of  John  Wesley,  should  be  invited  to  take  part  in  it.  It  was  con- 
fidently believed  that  it  would  prove  a pledge  of  fraternal  union 
between  the  various  branches  of  the  great  Methodist  family,  and 
bring  them  into  closer  fellowship.  In  this  spirit  the  enterprise 
was  begun,  and  in  this  S2jirit  it  has  been  steadily  carried  on.  In 
our  godly  judgment,  as  we  believe,  no  Church  scheme  was  ever 
more  fully  baptized  by  prayer  and  faith,  or  begun  with  an  eye 
more  single  to  the  glory  of  God,  whose  servant  John  Wesley  was, 
and  the  general  good  of  that  Methodism  which  he  founded  and 
bequeathed  to  his  followers. 

Solicited  by  the  Quarterly  Conference  in  Savannah,  and  urged 
by  his  presiding  Bishop,  George  Foster  Pierce,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  the 
editor  of  this  volume  entered  upon  the  task  of  uniting  in  this 
enterprise  the  Methodisms  of  the  world.  For  two  years  his  efforts 
were  purely  tentative — only  a jjart  of  his  time  taken  from  his 
regular  pastoral  labors  being  devoted  to  it.  This  was  kept  up,  at 
intervals,  until  the  meeting  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  held  at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  May, 
1878.  At  that  General  Conference  the  Monumental  Church 
received  the  unanimous  approval  of  that  great  bodjq  and  the 
editor  who  writes  these  lines  was  appointed,  commissioned,  and 
sent  to  the  various  Methodisms  of  the  world  to  solicit  the  co- 
operation of  them  all.  In  so  doing  the  General  Conference  gave 
the  highest  assurance  of  the  connectional  and  ecumenical  char- 


726 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Toluhe. 


aeter  of  the  work.  For  what  sectional  or  merely  local  Church,  by 
any  possibility,  could  have  secured  such  approval  from  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  'i  Thus  commissioned,  the  editor  began  anew  his 
labors,  and  with  what  success  the  following  papers  will  show : 

I.  Fkom  thx  Methopist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

To  build  a befitting  monument  in  honor  of  our  great  founder  we  ask  the 
friends  of  Clirist  .and  of  Methodism  evcrv-where  to  help  us,  believing  that  now 
is  pre-eminently  a fitting  time,  and  that  Savaimah  is,  beyond  itll  others,  the  place  in 
America  to  erect  such  a Christian  memorial  of  mutual  fellowship,  fraternity,  and 
love. 

A.  M.  Wtss,  P.astor  "Vresley  Church,  Savann.ah, 

E.  H.  Myers,  Pastor  Trinity  Church,  Savannah, 

J.  0.  A.  Clark,  Presiding  Elder,  Savannah  District, 

Lovick  Pierce,  South  Georgia  Conference, 

Charles  P.  Deems,  Church  of  the  Strangers,  Yew  York  City, 

J.  Houmch,  Secretary  American  Bible  Society. 

E.  Paine, 

George  F.  Pierce, 

H.  H.  Kavaxaugh, 

W.  M.  Wightman, 

D.  S.  Doggett, 

H.  Y.  M'Tyeire, 

J.  C.  Keener, 

Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


The  South  Georgia  Conference,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  December, 
1ST6,  passed  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions : 

TP/trreas,  It  is  proposed  to  erect  in  the  city  of  Savannah,  Ga.,  a monument  to 
the  memory  of  John  Wesley,  the  illustrious  founder  of  Methodism,  in  the  form  of 
a beautiful  and  commodious  church  edifice,  to  be  called  the  Wesley  Monumental 
Church;  and 

WAereos,  Such  a building  has  been  commenced  and  is  in  course  of  erection, 
with  the  promise  of  completion  at  no  distant  day ; and 

ITAcretiis,  This  enterprise  is  one  which  appeals  strongly  to  every  Methodist 
heart,  and  should  awaken  a feeling  of  interest  in  every  member  of  the  Church 
which  bears  his  honored  name ; 

Besolvcd,  1.  That  the  erection  of  such  a monument  meets  with  the  cordial  ap- 
proval of  this  Conference,  and  that  we  commend  this  enterprise  to  the  favorable 
consideration  of  our  ministers  and  members  throughout  the  South  Georgia  Confer- 
ence, and  bespeak  for  it  their  generous  co-operation  and  assistance. 

2.  Tliat  we  gratefully  recognize  and  appreciate  the  favor  with  which  this  enter- 
prise has  been  met  by  our  brethren  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Church,  and  the  material  aid  which  has  been  given  by  them. 

8.  That  we  commend  to  the  generous  sympathies  of  Methodists  throughout  the 
world  the  pastor  of  this  Church,  or  any  other  person  properly  authorized  to  repre- 
sent its  interests  and  solicit  aid  in  bringing  to  a successful  completion  this  fitting 
testimonial  of  our  love  and  veneration  for  the  memory  of  John  Wesley. 


Appendix. 


727 


4.  That  the  Presiding  Bishop  be  requested  to  give  Rev.  Dr.  J.  0.  A.  Clark  such 
an  appointment  as  will  enable  him  to  give  a large  part  of  his  time  to  the  interests 
of  this  Church. 

D.  S.  Doggett,  Presiding  Bishop. 

5.  D.  Clements,  Sea-etary. 


At  the  late  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  held 
at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  U.  S.  A.,  May  1-26,  1878,  the  following  resolutions  were  heartily 
and  unanimously  adopted ; 

Resolved,  1.  That  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  in  General  Conference  assembled  at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  May  9,  1878,  indorse  the 
Wesley  Monumental  Church  at  Savannah,  Ga.,  and  commend  it  to  Methodists  the 
world  over  as  an  enterprise  eminently  proper  and  meeting  our  hearty  approval. 

2.  That  the  bishops  be  and  are  hereby  authorized,  when  they  deem  it  expedient, 
to  appoint  an  agent  to  represent  this  memorial  church  to  Wesley,  and  to  solicit 
the  aid  of  Methodists  every-where  to  bring  it  to  an  early  completion. 

In  accordance  with  the  action  of  the  General  Conference,  it  was  announced  to 
the  Conference  that  the  Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  was  set  apart  and  com- 
missioned for  the  special  work  contemplated  in  the  above  resolutions. 

Thomas  0.  Summers,  Secretary. 


To  the  Methodists  of  the  United  States,  the  Canadas,  (Treat  Britain,  and  Ireland, 

greeting : 

Know,  therefore,  that  by  the  authority  of  the  General  Conference,  and  with  the 
consent  and  approval  of  the  College  of  Bishops,  I,  as  the  bishop  presiding  in  the 
South  Georgia  Annual  Conference,  have  appointed  the  Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  agent  for  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church  at  Savannah,  Ga. 

Dr.  Clark  is  an  effective  member  of  the  South  Georgia  Annual  Conference,  a 
brother  worthy  and  well  beloved,  and  is  hereby  commended  to  your  confidence, 
sympathy,  and  co-operation.  Receive  him  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  ; and  for  the 
sake  of  our  common  Methodism  and  the  name  of  the  great  and  good  Wesley — 
whom  we  venerate  as  you  do — help  him  in  the  work  to  which  he  has  been  ap- 
pointed. 

The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you. 

Signed  by  the  authority  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  the  College  of  Bishops  authorizing  and  approving. 

George  F.  Pierce, 

One  of  the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Atlanta,  Ga.,  U.  S.  A.,  May  25,  1878. 

Besides  the  above  general  commission  a special  commission  was  given  to  the 
Wesleyan  Conference  of  Great  Britain,  which  was  presented  to  the  Conference  at 
Bradford. 


n.  From  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Round  Lake,  N.  T.,  July  9,  1876. 

To  whom  these  rrmy  come,  greeting  : 

The  bearer,  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  by  proper  authority,  represents  the 
proposition  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  to  build 
in  that  city  a Wesley  Monumental  Church. 


728 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


We  think  the  proposal  a beautiful  and  very  important  one.  We  cordially  com- 
mend it  to  all  Methodists  every-where,  especially  to  those  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  and  bespeak  for  it  their  sympathy  and  financial  assistance. 

E.  S.  Janes, 

W.  L.  Harris, 

Thomas  Bowman, 

I.  W.  Wiley, 

K.  S.  Foster, 

E.  G.  Andrews, 

Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


At  a meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Bound  Lake  Camp-meeting  Asso- 
ciation, held  at  Round  Lake,  July  10,  18Y5,  the  following  preamble  and  resolution 
were  unanimously  adopted : 

Whereas,  It  is  contemplated  to  erect  a Monumental  Church  at  Savannah,  Ga., 
to  commemorate  the  scene  of  Wesley’s  earliest  and  only  labors  in  America,  an  en- 
terprise in  which  the  whole  family  of  Methodism  throughout  the  world  will  be 
appealed  to. 

Resolved,  That  we  depart  from  a fixed  rule  of  this  Association,  prohibiting  all 
financial  collections  on  these  grounds,  in  this  exceptional  instance,  which  cjn  never 
again  occur,  and  that  we  heartily  invite  all  like-minded  to  participate  in  this  most 
filial  and  worthy  undertaking,  and  to  present  their  offerings  to  our  esteemed 
brother.  Rev.  Dr.  Clark,  the  representative  of  the  Savannah  Church. 

Joseph  Hillman,  President. 

W.  S.  Kelley,  Secretary. 


At  the  Round  Lake  Camp-meeting  a collection  was  taken  up  for  the  church  in 
Savannah.  The  late  Bishop  Janes,  then  senior  Bishop,  introduced  the  subject  in 
the  name  of  the  trustees  of  the  Association,  and  headed  the  subscription,  which 
was  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ives.  Nearly  .$1,500  was  the  result.  There  were 
also  several  special  pledges.  A gentleman  of  Troy  promised  the  altar  railing ; 
Mrs.  Dr.  Newman  the  Bible ; Mrs.  Hillman  the  Hymn  Book ; Mrs.  Bishop  Simpson 
the  communion  service ; and  Mrs.  Dr.  Sewall,  of  Baltimore,  pledged  the  ladies  of 
the  North  to  furnish  the  auditorium.  In  this  work  Mrs.  Sewall  will  be  assisted  by 
Mrs.  Governor  Wright,  of  New  York;  Mrs.  Dr.  Newman,  of  New  York  ; Mrs.  Hill- 
man, of  Troy ; Mrs.  General  Fisk,  of  St.  Louis ; Mrs.  Bishop  Simpson,  of  Philadel- 
phia; Mrs.  President  Hayes,  of  Washington  City,  and  others. 


At  a meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Camp-meeting  Association,  held  at  Chester 
Heights,  July  22,  ISIS,  the  following  action  was  taken: 

Resolved,  That  we  assure  Dr.  Clark  of  our  full  sympathy  in  the  Monumental 
Church  to  Rev.  John  Wesley.  We  regard  this  effort  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
our  illustrious  founder  under  God  as  worthy  of  the  aid  and  co-operation  of  all 
lovers  of  our  common  Methodism. 

We  most  cordially  recommend  Dr.  Clark  and  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church  to 
the  liberality  of  our  friends  and  brethren  here  and  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

J.  B.  M’Cdllodgh,  Preside. 


T.  A.  Fernlet,  Secretary. 


Appendix. 


729 


At  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  at  Baltimore,  the 
following  was  given ; 

Baltimore,  May  30,  1876. 

To  whom  these  may  come,  greeting : 

We  heartily  approve  the  indorsement  of  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church — now 
building  in  Savannah,  Ga. — by  our  colleagues  at  Round  Lake,  July  9,  1876,  and, 
with  them,  think  the  proposal  “ a beautiful  and  very  important  one,”  and  cordially 
commend  it  to  the  sympathy  and  liberality  of  Methodists  every-where,  and  espe- 
cially to  those  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

L.  Scott, 

M.  Simpson, 

G.  Haven, 

S.  M.  Merrill, 

Jesse  T.  Peck, 

Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


From  the  Fraternal  Messengers  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  the  Wes- 
leyan Conference  at  Bradford,  England : 

To  the  Methodists  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  greeting  : 

The  Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  a member  of  the  South  Georgia  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
with  a commission  from  his  General  Conference,  held  at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  May,  1878, 
is  endeavoring  to  procure  from  those  who  cherish  the  name  of  John  Wesley, 
wherever  they  may  live,  contributions  to  aid  in  the  erection  of  a substantial  me- 
morial church  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  where  John  Wesley  lived  and  preached  two  years, 
and  tried  several  of  the  methods  afterward  more  fully  developed  in  Great  Britain 
and  America. 

Dr.  Clark’s  enterprise  has  already  reached  a good  degree  of  success,  and  in  due 
time  will,  without  doubt,  be  completed.  Savannah  is  a large  and  growing  city, 
and  this  church  will  be  a memorial,  and  also  practically  and  constantly  useful. 
Numbers  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  North  have  contributed  toward 
it ; and  already  the  presentation  of  the  object  in  different  parts  of  our  country  has 
had  a marked  effect  in  reviving  and  deepening  the , fraternity  of  the  two  great 
Methodist  Churches  in  America. 

We  shall  be  glad  to  see  the  memorial  church  completed  by  contributions  from 
all  lands  where  John  Wesley’s  work  is  known  and  admired. 

Thomas  Bowman, 

E.  0.  Haven, 

Fraternal  Delegates  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  the 

Wesleyan  Conference  of  Great  Britain,  at  Bradford, 

London,  August  20,  1878. 


HI.  From  Georgia’s  Senators  and  Representatives  in  the  United  States 

Congress. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  March  17,  1876. 

We,  the  undersigned,  members  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  from  the  State  of 
Georgia,  take  great  pleasure  in  recommending  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church, 
now  building  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  to  the  memory  of  John  Wesley,  the  founder  of 
Methodism,  and  solicit  for  it  the  sympathy  and  financial  aid  of  the  people  of  these 


730 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


United  States  every-where,  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  believing  it  to  be  an 
enterprise  eminently  worthy,  and  pre-eminently  calculated  to  develop  and  foster 
that  fraternal  spirit,  the  return  of  which  to  all  parts  of  our  common  country  all 
good  men  desire  to  see. 

T.  M.  Norwood,  U.  S.  Senator, 

J.  B.  Gordon,  U.  S.  Senator, 

Julian  Hartridge,  M.  C.,  First  District, 
William  E.  Smith,  M.  C.,  Second  District. 
Philip  Cook,  M.  C.,  Third  District, 

J.  E.  Harris,  M.  C.,  Fourth  District, 

J.  H.  Blount,  M.  C.,  Sixth  District, 

W.  H.  Felton,  M.  C.,  Seventh  District, 
Benjamin  H.  Hill,  M.  C.,  Ninth  District. 


IV.  From  the  President  oe  the  United  States  op  America. 

Executive  Department, 
Washington,  June  22,  ISTS. 

My  Dear  Sir  : I have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  the  Eev.  Dr.  Clark,  of 
Georgia.  He  is  a distinguished  clergyman  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  is  about  to  go  abroad  in  the  interests  of  an  enterprise  connected  with 
the  Church.  I will  esteem  it  a favor  personal  to  myself  if  you  can  aid  him. 

Sincerely,  R.  B.  Hates. 

Hon.  John  Welsh,  Minister  to  England. 


V.  From  the  Secretary  op  State  op  the  United  States  op  America. 

Department  op  State, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  June  26,  ISYS. 

To  the  Diplomatic  and  Consular  Officers  of  the  United  States  : 

Gentlemen  : I take  pleasure  in  introducing  to  your  acquaintance  the  Rev.  Dr. 
J.  0.  A.  Clark,  of  Macon,  Ga.,  who  is  about  proceeding  abroad  on  a commission 
from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to  the  Wesleyan  Conference  of  Great 
Britain. 

I beg  to  commend  Dr.  Clark  to  such  courtesies  on  your  part  as  may  be  in  your 
power,  not  inconsistent  with  your  official  duties. 

I am,  gentlemen,  your  obedient  servant,  W.  M.  Evarts. 


VI.  From  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  op  the  United  States. 

Ltnchburgh,  Va.,  April  16,  1879. 

Eev.  J,  0.  A,  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D. : 

Dear  Sir  and  Brother  : Allow  us  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  the  fra- 
ternal greetings  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  in  connection  with  your  laud- 
able enterprise  of  erecting  a memorial  church  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  and  to  assure  you 
that  our  Church  is  sensitively  observant,  not  only  of  every  thing  pertaining  to  our 
holy  Christianity,  but  of  every  thing  that  relates  to  our  cherished  Methodism; 
and  that  in  common  with  every  other  branch  of  the  Methodist  family,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  will  be  highly  gratified  with  your  com- 
plete success. 


Appendix. 


731 


The  appropriateness  of  such  a monument  to  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Wesley  in 
Savannah  must  be  apparent  to  all,  and  will  be  duly  appreciated  wherever  Method- 
ism is  known.  For  who  can  tell  what  Methodism  owes  to  the  providential  asso- 
ciation of  the  Wesley  brothers  with  the  Moravian  immigrants,  who  accompanied 
them  in  their  mission  to  our  American  shores  ? 

May  our  common  Methodism  never  cease  to  be  “ Christianity  in  earnest.” 

Yours  in  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 

L.  W.  Bates,  President. 

G.  B.  M’Eleoy,  Secretary. 


VII.  From  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  op  the  United  States. 

Booms  op  the  Bishops’  Council  of  the 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

Baltimore,  Md.,  April  25,  ISYO. 

Having  been  informed — through  the  agency  of  the  Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D., 
LL.D. — of  the  purpose  and  plans  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to 
erect  a monumental  house  of  worship  in  the  city  of  Savannah,  Ga.,  commemorative 
of  the  life  and  work  of  the  apostolic  Wesley  and  our  common  Methodism,  and 
deeming  the  enterprise  admirably  adapted  to  fraternize  all  the  branches  of  the 
great  Methodist  family ; 

We,  the  Bishops  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  do  hereby  indorse 
the  enterprise ; and,  looking  forward  with  pleasure  to  its  ultimate  success,  we 
earnestly  wish  it  God-speed. 

In  testimony  w'hereof  we  severally  subscribe  our  names. 

Daniel  A.  Payne,  Senior  Bishop, 
Alexander  W.  Weyman, 

Jabez  P.  Campbell, 

James  A.  Shorter, 

T.  M.  E.  Ward, 

John  M.  Brown. 


VIII.  From  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America. 

Macon,  Ga.,  December  18,  1878. 

We,  the  undersigned,  take  great  pleasure  in  recommending  the  Wesley  Monu- 
mental Church,  now  building  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  as  an  appropriate  and  eminently 
worthy  memorial  of  John  Wesley,  the  founder  of  our  common  Methodism. 

W.  H.  Miles, 

J.  A.  Beebe, 

L.  H.  Holsey, 

Isaac  Lane, 

Bishops  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America. 


IX.  From  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

Montreal,  January  31,  1879. 

My  Dear  Dr.  Clark  ; The  scheme  to  erect  a memorial  church  in  the  city  of 
Savannah  has,  from  the  very  first,  been  to  me  full  of  interest,  as  tending  to  honor 
the  name  of  the  beloved  founder  of  Methodism.  For  evermore  is  the  name  of 
46 


732 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


Savannah  sacred  in  our  Methodist  annals  as  the  place  where  the  heroic  spirit  of 
Wesley  began  to  be  trained  for  that  magnificent  work  which,  under  God,  he  subse- 
quently accomplished.  I am  confident  that  the  sympathies  of  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Canada  are  with  you  in  your  great  and  noble  work. 

Wishing  you  every  success,  I am  yours,  etc., 

George  Douglass, 

President  of  the  General  Conference 

of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 


X.  From  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  Canada. 

Belleville,  Ont., 
Canada,  January  17,  1879. 

Rem.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D. : 

Dear  Brother;  The  project  of  a Wesley  memorial  church  in  Savannah  has  my 
hearty  accord.  There  is  an  inspiration  to  coming  generations  in  monuments ; and 
to  Methodists — indeed,  to  the  Christian  world — no  more  inspiring  or  instructive 
monument  could  be  reared  than  a worthy  church  edifice  at  the  center  of  interest  of 
Wesley’s  labors  on  the  American  continent,  signalizing  that  thus  far  he  had  taken 
the  world  for  Christ. 

With  Christian  and  fraternal  greetings, 

A.  Carman, 

Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Canada. 


XI.  From  the  Weslevans  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

The  action  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference,  begun  at  Bradford,  England, 
July  23,  appears  in  the  “ Minutes  ” of  the  Conference,  as  follows : 

savannah  memorial  church. 

The  Conference,  having  heard  a statement  from  the  Eev.  Dr.  Clark,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  reference  to  a project  for  building  a memorial 
church  to  commemorate  the  labors  of  the  Eev.  John  Wesley,  at  Savannah,  Ga., 
cordially  recommends  this  scheme  to  the  favorable  consideration  and  hearty  sym- 
pathy of  the  Connection. 

In  “The  [London]  Watchman”  and  in  “The  [London]  Methodist  Kecorder” 
the  action  of  the  same  Conference  was  reported  as  follows : 

Dr.  Clark,  of  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  gave  an  address 
on  the  subject  of  the  John  Wesley  Monumental  Church,  which  was  being  built  in 
Savannah,  Ga.  He  said  he  stood  before  them  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  he  might  also  say,  in  reference  to  his 
special  object  in  now  addressing  them,  of  the  whole  Methodism  of  the  United 
States.  They  propose  to  build  a Monumental  Church  to  Mr.  John  Wesley,  in  Sa- 
vannah. They  could  not  forget  that  it  was  in  Savannah  that  John  Wesley  origi- 
nated the  class-meeting  and  the  Sunday-school.  It  was  there,  too,  he  was  led  to 
apprehend  the  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection,  and  there  his  high-Church  notions 
got  their  death-blow.  It  was  at  Savannah  he  gathered  the  children  in  Sunday- 
school  nearly  fifty  years  before  Mr.  Kaikes  first  conceived  the  idea  in  England. 
Mr.  Wesley  had  to  bless  God  in  after  years  for  having  led  him  to  Georgia.  In  Sa- 


Appendix 


733 


Savannali  Mr.  "Wesley’s  name  had  done  as  much  for  the  Episcopal  Church  as  for 
Methodism,  and  his  influence  probably  accounted  for  the  evangelical  views  which 
were  long  characteristic  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  Georgia. 

Dr.  Gervase  Smith  said  he  had  listened  with  delight  to  the  address.  If  the  Con- 
ference could  do  any  thing  to  further  the  object  which  Dr.  Clark  had  in  view,  he 
should  be  thankful. 

The  President,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rigg,  said  that  it  was  very  desirable  that  Methodism 
should  have  a Monumental  Church  at  Savannah,  a church  worthy  of,  and  corre- 
sponding to,  Mr.  "Wesley’s  work  in  Georgia. 

Dr.  Smith  then  moved,  which  was  seconded  by  Dr.  Punshon  and  Dr.  Pope,  that 
the  Conference  heartily  commend  this  undertaking  to  the  kindly  consideration  of 
our  people,  which  was  unanimously  agreed  to. 

The  President,  addressing  Dr.  Clark,  said : We  are  very  glad  to  have  had  among 
us  a representative  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  That  Church  has 
done  wonders  for  the  colored  people  of  the  Southern  States,  and  has  preserved 
Methodist  doctrines  and  traditions  with  singular  fidelity. 


The  following  editorial,  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  John  H.  James,  D.D.,  ex-Pres- 
ident  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference,  and  editor  of  “ The  [London]  Watchman,”  ap- 
peared in  that  paper  September  4,  1818  : 

THE  WESLEY  MONUMENTAL  CHURCH  IN  SATAENAH. 

We  have  much  pleasure  in  calling  attention  to  the  appeal  of  Dr.  Clark  relative 
to  the  erection  of  the  above-named  church.  That  appeal  is  so  powerfully  backed 
by  the  highest  Methodist  authorities,  both  in  America  and  England,  and  is,  more- 
over, in  itself,  so  reasonable  and  graceful,  that  we  can  hardly  doubt  of  its  success. 
There  is,  perhaps,  no  episode  in  all  our  founder’s  history  more  strangely  or  pain- 
fully interesting  than  that  of  his  sojourn  in  Georgia,  and  his  checkered  and  disap- 
pointing experiences  there.  He  went  out  before  he  had  attained  to  the  clear  and 
definite  experience  of  spiritual  religion,  partly  in  the  natural  but  delusive  hope  of 
finding  rest  to  his  soul  while  laboring  for  the  conversion  of  the  Georgia  Indians. 
By  the  good  providence  of  God  he  learned  not  a little  of  the  nature  of  evangelical 
go'dliness  on  his  outward  voyage,  but  not  enough  to  rescue  him  from  the  fear  of 
death,  or  to  appease  altogether  the  unrest  of  his  soul.  He  was  destined  to  much 
vexation  and  disappointment,  and  to  become  the  victim  of  a good  deal  of  misrepre- 
sentation and  calumny.  These,  however,  were  overruled  for  good,  and  were  among 
the  links  of  that  mysterious  chain  which,  soon  after  his  return  to  England,  drew 
him  into  the  broader  and  brighter  places  of  scriptural  assurance  and  spiritual 
serenity  and  peace.  Nor  was  his  work  in  Georgia  by  any  means  wholly  in  vain. 
Had  he  done  no  more  than  bring  the  young  under  systematic  religious  instruction, 
that  fact  alone  should  have  sufficed  to  immortalize  his  name ; for  he  anticipated 
by  nearly  half  a century  the  plans  and  labors  of  Robert  Raikes.  But  he  did  much 
more. 

Defective  as  was  his  knowledge  of  evangelical  theology,  it  was  far  in  advance  of 
that  of  almost  all  his  fellow-clergymen ; and  he  left  the  impress  of  that  theology  so 
clearly  and  deeply  stamped  that  the  Protestant  Episcopal  clergy  of  the  State  of 
Georgia  have  been  singularly  free  from  latitudinarianism  on  the  one  hand,  and  rit- 
ualistic superstition  on  the  other.  Indeed,  this  fact  has  operated  unfavorably  upon 


734 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volume. 


the  extension  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Savannah.  It  seems  to  us  a 
fair  and  reasonable  ground  for  appealing  to  British  Wesleyanism  on  the  present 
occasion  to  remind  them  of  the  fact  that  Savannah  was  the  sole  scene  of  the  per- 
sonal labors  of  John  Wesley  in  the  United  States;  and  we  hope  that  many  will 
practically  acknowledge  how  graceful  would  be  the  act  of  building  a memorial 
church  in  honor  and  commemoration  of  the  founder  of  Methodism  in  this  sphere  of 
his  earliest  missionary  labor. 

Possibly  this  may  be  pooh-poohed  as  being  pm-ely  sentimental.  Even  if  we  were 
to  grant  that  there  is  a good  deal  of  this  in  it,  the  scheme  would  not  much  differ 
from  a good  many  with  which  we  are,  and  long  have  been,  pretty  familiar.  But  it 
has  this  feature  in  common  with  such  enterprises  generally — that,  if  it  savors  of 
sentiment  in  its  origin,  it  is  eminently  and  most  benignly  practical  in  its  aims.  It 
proposes  to  erect  not  only  a sanctuary  that,  in  its  size  and  architectural  excellence, 
shall  be  worthy  of  the  great  man  after  whom  it  is  to  be  named,  and  of  the  great 
American  Church,  which  is  the  most  wonderful  among  the  manifold  results  of  his 
labors,  but  it  is  intended  also  to  promote  the  work  of  varied  and  extensive  Chris- 
tian education.  These  are  objects  dear  to  all  true  Wesleyans,  wherever  the  attempt 
is  made  to  carry  them  out ; and  they  should  command  the  practical  sympathy  of 
British  as  of  all  other  Methodists. 

The  proposal  comes  recommended  to  us  by  another  powerful  consideration, 
namely,  that  it  has  had  quite  the  effect  of  the  olive  branch  between  the  Northern 
and  the  Southern  Methodist  Churches  of  the  United  States.  The  unhappy  separa- 
tion which  the  question  of  slavery  induced  between  the  North  and  South  a genera- 
tion ago  has  ceased  to  be  a cause  of  strife  between  the  two  Churches ; and  one  of 
the  first  signs  of  the  passing  away  of  the  mutual  alienation  then  engendered  has 
been  the  generous,  warm,  and  brotherly  reception  given  to  the  proposal  by  the 
highest  authorities  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  liberal  response 
rendered  to  the  appeal  of  its  Bishops  by  the  members  of  that  Church  generally. 
Every  one  familiar  with  the  disastrous  results  of  the  separation,  and  the  feeling  of 
intense  mutual  hostility  which  it  engendered,  will  rejoice  exceedingly  at  this  cheer- 
ing token  and  presage  of  “ the  healing  of  the  breach ; ” and  will  be  ready  to  foster 
it  according  to  his  ability.  W e trust — nay,  we  have  sanguine  hope — that  it  may 
prove  to  be  the  bridge  on  which  both  parties  may  move  forward,  not  only  to  per- 
fect accord,  but  to  early  re-incorporation ; and  it  is  worth  any  one’s  while  to  place 
a stone  or  a brick  in  a structure  which  is  likely  to  help  forward  such  a result. 

Some  persons  will  inquire  wonderingly,  how  it  comes  to  pass  that  Methodists  of 
America  should  think  of  asking  British  Wesleyans  for  help  in  such  an  undertaking. 
Well,  the  scale  of  the  proposed  undertaking  is  large  enough  to  require  cosmopoli- 
tan support ; and  the  uniqueness  of  the  historical  circumstances  constitutes  a justi- 
fication of  the  proceeding.  _ Besides,  let  us  remind  our  readers  of  the  amazing  gen- 
erosity which  the  Methodists  of  America  have  shown,  in  more  instances  than  one, 
toward  Wesleyan  schemes  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic — notably,  in  aid  of  some  of 
the  most  recent  and  important  projects  for  the  consolidation  and  extension  of 
Methodism  in  Ireland.  Now,  British  and  Irish  Methodism  are  emphatically  one. 
Both  are  under  the  supreme  government  of  “ the  Conference  of  the  people  called 
Methodists,”  and  ten  Irish  ministers  are  members  of  the  body  to  which,  in  law,  that 
designation  belongs.  Surely  some  practical  return  is  due  for  all  that  transatlantic 
generosity.  Surely  the  hearty  and  general  support  of  Dr.  Clark’s  proposals  by  all 
Methodists  in  all  parts  of  the  world  will  be  a worthy  way  not  only  of  maintaining 
but  of  exhibiting  “ the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.”  The  scattered 


Appekdix. 


735 

members  and  communities  of  other  Churches  are  seeking  to  draw  closer  the  bonds  of 
mutual  sympathy  and  fellowship.  In  some  attempts  having  that  object  in  view  we 
are  pained  to  see,  that  apparently  it  can  only  be  attained  by  a degree  of  theological 
compromise  which,  however  it  may  promote  external  uniformity,  has  in  it  no  ele- 
ment or  promise  of  real  and  vital  unity.  But  here  there  is  no  such  danger.  The 
Methodist  theology,  all  the  world  over,  is  singularly  symtnetrical  and  uniform  ; and 
a closer  union  and  co-operation  between  the  branches  of  the  great  Methodist  family 
would  be  a real  and  a mighty  gain  to  the  cause  of  true  unity. 

The  Conference  has  heartily  indorsed  the  scheme,  which  is  emphatically  com- 
mended by  such  men  as  the  President,  and  Drs.  Punshon  and  Gervase  Smith ; all 
of  whom  know  America  well.  For  all  these  reasons,  and  for  others  which  need  not 
now  be  named,  we  commend  the  cause  which  Dr.  Clark  advocates  to  the  sympa- 
thizing and  generous  support  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland. 


In  “The  [London]  Methodist,”  September  13,  1878,  the  Rev.  J.  Jackson  Wray, 
its  editor,  wrote  the  following  leader : 

THE  JOHN  WESLEY  MONUMENTAL  CHURCH  IN  SAVANNAH. 

The  exhaustive  and  interesting  statement  made  by  our  transatlantic  visitor.  Dr. 
Clark,  to  the  members  of  the  late  Conference,  and  published  verbatim  in  our  col- 
umns, together  with  the  unusually  emphatic  credentials  which  this  worthy  repre- 
sentative of  Methodism  in  the  Southern  States  enabled  us  to  print  in  a later  num- 
ber of  The  Methodist,  renders  it  almost  needless  to  call  the  attention  of  our 
readers  to  the  important  mission  which  has  brought  him  to  our  shores.  It  is  in- 
tended to  erect  a large  and  handsome  Methodist  church  in  Savannah,  and  to  attach 
to  it  an  educational  agency  which  shall  be  of  great  and  lasting  service  to  the  inter- 
ests of  Methodism,  and  therefore  of  evangelical  Christianity  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  region  round  about.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  there  is  good  reason 
why  British  Methodism  should  not  only  be  willing  but  eager  to  have  part  and  lot  in 
this  important  undertaking.  In  the  first  place,  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  State 
of  Georgia  was  the  scene  and  center  of  John  Wesley’s  missionary  labors  in  the 
United  States.  It  was  on  his  outward  journey  thither  that  important  progress  was 
made  in  his  religious  views  and  feelings,  progress  which  had  much  to  do  with  his 
full  reception  of  the  heavenly  vision  in  after  times.  There  he  was  in  labors  more 
abundant,  under  the  influence  of  a constraining  hunger  for  the  truth  and  for  the 
peace  which  it  alone  can  bring,  which  appears  to  us  to  form  one  of  the  most  im- 
pressively touching  episodes  in  his  remarkable  history.  There  he  anticipated  the 
grand  idea  of  Robert  Raikes,  and  instituted  a Sunday-school  organization,  the  fore- 
runner and  germ  of  one  of  the  most  glorious  evangelic  movements  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  There,  too,  John  Wesley  succeeded  in  laying  the  basis  of  so  clear  and 
distinct  an  evangelical  Christianity  that  all  the  phases  of  thought  and  changes  of 
opinion  which  have  obtained  since  then  have  been  unable  to  move  the  Church  he 
established  from  the  pure  simplicity  of  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  In 
the  second  place,  this  idea  of  a Savannah  memorial  church  has  already  done,  and  is 
stUl  doing,  very  much  to  heal  the'wound  made  by  the  separation  in  a past  genera- 
tion of  the  Southern  from  the  Northern  Churches  on  the  slavery  question.  Strong 
sympathy  with  the  present  movement  has  been  shown  by  Bishops,  ministers,  and 
members  of  the  Northern  Church,  and  all  the  signs  of  the  times  point  with  hopeful 


736 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volume. 


finger  to  the  full  reunion  of  the  two  in  the  bonds  of  amity  and  peace.  We  should 
count  it  an  honor  and  a joy  to  be  able  in  any  wise  to  aid  in  the  rewelding  of  the 
bonds  of  holy  Methodistic  brotherhood  that  have  been  too  long  asunder.  In  the 
third  place,  British  Methodism  may  well  be  anxious  to  show  a parental  interest  in 
and  an  earnest  anxiety  for  the  welfare  of  that  most  muscular  and  stalwart  of  all 
her  children,  the  Methodist  Church  of  America.  Methodism  all  round  the  world  is 
essentially  one  in  doctrine,  almost  one  in  discipline,  and  certainly  in  aim  ; and  he  is  a 
true  and  genuine  Methodist  who  strives  heartily  and  constantly  to  bring  all  the  sec- 
tions of  this  great  religious  family  into  intimate  relationship  each  with  the  other. 
In  many  ways,  and  by  many  means,  the  mighty  Methodism  of  the  West  has  shown 
its  interest  in,  and  its  esteem  for,  the  old  Church  at  home,  and  we  should  be  thank- 
ful for  such  a practical  opportunity  of  reciprocating  such  real  affection  and  good 
feeling.  Dr.  Clark’s  mission  is  to  secure  financial  aid  in  England  and  Ireland  for 
this  grand  memorial  enterprise.  Those  of  our  leading  ministers  who  have  personal 
acquaintance  with  Methodism  in  America — men  like  Drs.  Jobson,  Pope,  Punshon, 
and  Smith — have  indorsed  the  application.  The  Conference  has  passed  a unani- 
mous resolution  in  its  favor  ; and  we  would  sincerely  hope  that  this  respected  dep- 
utation from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  South,  will  return  to  his  native  land 
bearing  abundant  and  tangible  proof  of  the  love,  esteem,  and  good  wishes  of  British 
Methodism  for  those  across  the  Atlantic  who  bear  the  same  name,  honor  the  mem- 
ory of  the  same  noble  apostolic  founder,  are  loyal  to  the  same  doctrinal  formulas, 
and  are  engaged  in  the  same  glorious  mission  of  spreading  scriptural  holiness 
through  all  lands.  We  wish  God-speed  to  Dr.  Clark  in  the  accomplishment  of  his 
errand,  and  bespeak  for  him  a kind  reception  and  a hearty  response  from  the 
“ Methodist  Societies  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.” 


In  “The  [London]  Recorder,”  September  2'!,  ISYS,  there  appeared  a strong 
address  by  the  Rev,  Dr.  Gervase  Smith,  ex-President  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference, 
urging  upon  British  Methodists  the  claims  of  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church. 
Accompanying  and  introducing  Dr.  Smith’s  address  was  the  following  leader,  from 
the  pen  of  its  editor,  the  Rev.  W.  Morley  Punshon,  LL.D. : 

We  earnestly  ask  the  attention  of  our  readers  to  a letter  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ger- 
vase Smith,  which  we  publish  this  week.  It  is  exceptional  for  any  scheme  not 
directly  conferential  to  be  thus  warmly  advocated,  but  the  circumstances,  as  the 
doctor  says,  are  not  only  exceptional,  but  unique.  A memorial  church  and  schools 
to  John  Wesley  in  the  city  of  Savannah  ! 

There  is  something  cosmopolitan,  and  inspiring  also,  in  the  thought.  To  devout 
students  of  the  ways  of  God  with  man,  how  deep  emotions  are  stirred,  and  holy 
recollections  awakened,  as  the  memories  of  John  Wesley  in  Georgia  rise  before  the 
eye  of  the  mind  ! A bootless  mission,  an  unsatisfactory  waste  of  time  and  labor, 
an  ascetic  experiment  in  a disastrous  retreat,  after  the  exhibition  of  a rigid  auster- 
ity, and  no  small  heroism  of  determined  purpose — such  are  the  conclusions  to 
which  many  would  come  in  reference  to  Mr.  Wesley’s  residence  in  Savannah.  But 
who  can  doubt  that  all  this  discipline  was  part  of  a grand  preparative  process  by 
which  he  was  schooled  through  the  “ uses  of  adversity  ” for  future  usefulness  and 
blessing ; by  which  he  was  taught  sympathy,  and  patience,  and  self-renunciation, 
and  courage — apostolic  graces  which  the  apostolical  life,  to  which  he  was  desig- 
nated, required. 


Appendix. 


737 


The  Georgian  era,  no  less  than  the  subsequent  experience,  is  the  traditional  her- 
itage of  uniyersal  Methodism.  True,  he  was  then  a ritualist,  a bigot,  and  a some- 
what severe  and  unbending  neophyte  in  government ; but  these  were  only  the 
youthful  exaggerations  of  great  virtues.  His  ritualism  was  simply  reverence  gone 
mad  for  the  time ; his  bigotry  was  subdued  by  the  wise  Providence  which  ordained 
that  his  greatest  blessings  should  come  to  him  through  chaimels  which  he  would 
at  one  time  have  despised ; and  the  mortification  of  his  Georgia  failure  taught  him 
to  govern  more  wisely,  and  impressed  on  him  the  truth  which  Church  rulers  are  so 
slow  to  learn,  that  the  compactest  system  is  of  infinitely  less  value  than  the  fee- 
blest man.  We  repeat  it;  John  Wesley  was  the  better  for  his  toil  and  travail  in 
Savaimah,  and  that  city  ought  to  possess  a temple  to  his  memory  to  which  all 
Methodism  had  gratefully  contributed,  and  which  will  be  more  to  the  glory  of  God 
and  to  the  fulfillment  of  his  great  life-work  than  the  memories  which  now  cluster 
only  around  “Wesley’s  Oak”  and  “Wesley’s  Spring.” 


In  the  “ Wesleyan-Methodist  Sunday-school  Magazine”  for  October,  18V8,  the 
Rev.  Charles  H.  Kelly,  editor  of  the  magazine,  and  Sunday-school  Secretary  of  the 
Wesleyan  Conference,  with  the  full  and  hearty  approval  of  Dr.  Rigg,  the  President 
of  the  Conference,  put  the  engraving  of  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church,  and 
accompanied  it  with  the  following  editorial : 

WESLEY  MEMORIAL  CHURCH  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  IN  SAVANNAH. 

Very  properly  it  has  been  resolved  to  erect  a suitable  monument  to  the  memory 
of  John  Wesley  in  the  only  city  in  America  in  which  he  was  minister. 

The  connection  of  Wesley  with  Savannah,  though  short,  was  eventful,  and, 
though  painful,  it  was  interesting.  As  Methodists,  perhaps  we  may  be  thankful 
both  for  its  brevity  and  bitterness.  Probably  if  it  had  been  more  agreeable  to  our 
founder,  Georgia  might  have  had  a splendid  missionary,  and  Savannah  a very  able 
and  worthy  citizen  in  Wesley ; but  Methodism  might  never  have  been  known,  and 
Great  Britain  and  the  world  would  have  suffered  terribly  in  consequence.  But 
God  rules  all  things  wisely. 

We  are  thankful  that  Georgia’s  loss  was  Christendom’s  gain.  Now,  after  all 
these  years  our  friends  in  Savannah  propose  to  erect  a monument  to  Wesley.  Of 
what  sort  is  it  to  be  ? Wisely  they  have  determined  that  it  shall  be  a memorial 
church  and  Sunday-school  of  noble  proportions,  and  admirably  constructed.  This 
is  far  better  than  having  a great  bronze  or  marble  statue  in  some  public  place. 
That  might  be  beautiful  as  a work  of  art,  and  commemorative,  but  it  would  con- 
tinue bronze  or  marble — it  would  be  a dead  thing ; but  in  this  church  and  school 
there  will  be  life.  In  them  the  work  of  Wesley  will  be  continued.  The  gospel 
will  be  preached  and  taught.  Living  minds  and  souls  will  be  wrought  upon,  and 
in  each  case  a man  or  woman,  youth  or  maiden,  boy  or  girl,  will  go  forth  from  the 
monumental  building  a personal  monument  of  the  blessedness  of  the  religion  of 
Wesley’s  great  Master. 

We  do  not  wonder  that  the  Savannah  Methodists  wish  to  enlist  the  sjunpatbies 
of  aU  members  of  the  Methodist  family  scattered  over  the  world  in  their  enter- 
prise. They  are  very  anxious  that  the  Sunday-school  workers  and  scholar.^  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  should  contribute  one  or  two  memorial  windows  for  the 
auditorium-  or  the  Sunday-school.  A subscription  of  two  hundred  guineas  will 
secure  the  first,  and  one  hundred  guineas  the  second.  Will  our  Sunday-school 


V38 


The  Wesley  Memoeial  Volhiie. 


friends  help  this  movement?  Let  them  remember  that  John  Wesley  was,  when  at 
Savannah,  a pioneer  in  Sunday-school  work,  for  that  he  engaged  in  it  in  that  city 
nearly  fifty  years  before  Kobert  Raikes  began  his  movement  in  Gloucester.  Let  us 
help,  therefore,  to  adorn  this  monument  where  he  did  commence  the  school.  A 
very  little  effort  will  insure  immediate  success.  One  collection  even  at  the  school 
doors  would  realize  the  whole  amount.  Let  what  is  done  be  done  quickly,  as  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Clark  shortly  leaves  England.  Contributions  can  be  sent  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Clark,  care  of  the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Kelly,  Secretary  of  the  Connectional  Sunday- 
School  Union,  2,  Ludgate  Circus  Buildings,  London,  E.  C. 


The  Rev.  Dr.  James,  in  “The  [London]  Watchman,”  October  16,  IS'ZS,  published 
two  addresses  to  the  Methodists  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  the  one,  by  Chancel- 
lor E.  0.  Haven,  a fraternal  messenger  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of 
the  United  States  to  the  Wesleyan  Conference  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  in  the 
interest  of  the  proposed  Ecumenical  Methodist  Council ; and  the  other  by  the 
editor  of  this  volume,  in  behalf  of  the  memorial  church  in  Savannah.  In  “ The 
Watchman,”  of  the  same  date,  the  leader  given  below  was  written  by  Dr.  James: 

f 

DR.  HAVEN  AND  DR.  CLARK. 

Our  readers  will,  we  have  no  doubt,  peruse  the  letters  of  these  two  distinguished 
men  which  we  print  on  the  preceding  page.  Dr.  Haven’s  letter  relates  to  a subject 
which  awakened  considerable  interest  at  the  recent  Conference  in  Bradford,  in  ref- 
erence to  which  subject  the  Conference  appointed  a committee  to  meet  during  the 
year  to  consider  the  proposal,  and  to  report  to  the  next  Conference.  We  feel 
some  difficulty  in  appearing,  in  any  degree,  to  anticipate  the  discussions  of  that 
committee.  It  will  meet  in  perfect  freedom  and  confidence,  and  will  give  to  the 
subject  the  thorough  and  respectful  consideration  which  its  own  importance,  and 
the  great  and  weighty  influence  of  the  quarter  whence  the  question  comes,  demand. 
There  is  something  captivating  to  the  imagination  in  the  prospect  of  an  “Ecumen- 
ical Methodist  Conference.”  Perhaps,  however,  there  may  be  a good  many  who 
will  think,  as  the  doctor  himself  did  awhile  ago,  that  such  gatherings  are  “ more 
ornamental  than  useful.”  That  aspect  of  the  question  will  assuredly  receive  the 
attention  of  the  committee,  as  will  the  practical  as  well  as  sentimental  reasons 
which  our  much-esteemed  correspondent  urges  in  behalf  of  the  proposal.  Of  one 
thing  we  may  be  sure,  namely,  that  if  held  at  all,  such  a Conference  would  be 
formed  on  an  inclusive  and  not  exclusive  principle.  There  is  considerable  diversity 
of  form,  polity,  and  even  ritual,  among  the  various  bodies  of  Methodists  in  the 
world ; and.  each  section  would  be  duly  represented.  Moreover,  no  “ burning 
questions  ” would  be  likely  to  produce  fiery  and  angry  discussion.  At  the  present 
moment  the  ecclesiastical  differences  between  the  various  forms  of  Methodism, 
which  were  once  matters  of  such  fierce  controversy,  are  fewer  and  smaller  than 
they  ever  were,  and  are  likely  to  become  fewer  and  smaller  still.  Theological  con- 
troversy is  out  of  the  question.  The  simple  and  broad  basis  of  Wesley’s  first  four 
volumes  of  “Sermons,”  and  his  “Notes  on  the  New  Testament”  has  been  sufficient 
to  secure  pretty  complete  doctrinal  unity ; and  on  the  vital  truths  embraced  in  the 
experimental  theology  of  Methodism  there  is  far  more  than  merely  substantial 
agreement. 

The  questions  with  which  an  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  would  have  to 
deal  would  be  almost  exclusively  practical ; and  we  may  entertain  the  sanguine 


Appendix. 


739 


hope  that  it  would  be  highly  promotive  of  that  unity  which  distinguishes  the  Meth- 
odist Churches  even  now  above  all  others,  and  creates  among  Methodists  of  every 
shade  a family  feeling  all  over  the  world.  The  spirit  which  originated  the  proposal 
in  America,  and  in  which  it  was  commended  to  the  British  Conference  by  Dr.  Ha- 
ven, will  secure  for  it  as  favorable  a consideration  a.s  possible ; and  whatever  may 
be  the  decision  on  the  immediate  question,  we  cannot  doubt  that  good  results  will 
follow.  ^ 

We  could  wish  that  Dr.  Clark  had  had  the  opportunity  of  urging  his  case  before 
such  a Conference.  We  feel  unbounded  confidence  as  to  what  the  result  would 
be.  It  is  very  likely,  indeed,  that  a Pan-Methodist  Conference  would  have  secured 
for  our  respected  guest  all,  and  perhaps  more  than  all,  that  he  so  powerfully  and 
eloquently  pleads  for  in  his  speeches  and  letters.  We  beseech  our  readers  to  give 
his  vigorous,  eloquent,  and  fine-tempered  letter  the  candid  and  attentive  perusal 
which  it  so  obviously  deserves.  We  should  be  sorry  indeed  if  he  should  return 
disappointed  to  Savannah. 

There  can  be  no  reason  whatever  why  a world-raised  monument  should  not  be 
built  in  memory  of  him  whose  motto  was,  “ The  world  is  my  parish ; ” but  very 
many  reasons  may  be,  and  have  been,  given  why  it  should.  And  if  it  should,  surely 
no  place  is  more  appropriate  than  Savannah,  where  his  first  missionary  labors  be-' 
gan,  and  where,  in  spite  of  his  personal  disappointments,  and  apparent  failure,  he 
has  left  an  evangelical  savor  which  “ smells  sweet  ” to  this  very  day. 

There  is  no  little  pathos  in  Dr.  Clark’s  eloquent  appeal,  and  the  spirit  of  British 
hospitality,  as  well  as  that  of  Methodist  brotherhood,  calls  for  a worthy  response. 
The  kind  of  tu  quoque  argument  in  which  the  writer  indulges  is  perfectly  just  and 
true,  and  sets  out  what,  if  the  circumstances  and  parties  were  reversed,  would  un- 
questionably be  the  action  of  American  Methodists ; nay,  what  has  been  their 
action  in  more  than  one  instance.  Dr.  Robinson  Scott  and  Mr.  Hazleton  could  each 
tell  us  with  what  warmth  of  sympathy  and  liberality  each  of  their  respective  ap- 
peals was  answered  in  the  United  States,  though  these  appeals  related  to  purely 
local  matters.  True,  in  one  sense,  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church  in  Savannah  is 
a local  matter,  and  that  city  will  derive  the  chief  and  abiding  benefit.  But  it  is 
fitting  that  every  lover  and  admirer  of  John  Wesley  should  have  a brick  in  such  a 
house. 

Our  friends  inform  us  that  they  are  about  to  take  their  flight.  We  are  sorry 
for  it,  but  personal  health  and  home  duties  make  iri^psistible  demands.  We  can 
only  say,  that  their  visit  has  been  the  cause  of  both  pleasure  and  profit  to  multi- 
tudes of  their  fellow-Methodists  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Our  readers  will  follow 
them  with  kindly  wishes  and  earnest  prayers,  and  we  trust  that  each  of  these  be- 
loved and  esteemed  visitors  to  our  shores  will  speedily  see  the  realization  of  the 
object  which  is  so  dear  to  his  heart. 


Xn.  Feom  the  Methodist  New  Connection  in  England. 

Great  Clower-street, 
Manchester,  October  18,  18'79. 

Rev.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.I).  : 

My  Dear  Sir  : By  the  favor  of  our  esteemed  editor,  the  Rev.  J.  Hudston,  I have 
received  an  intimation  that  you  are  engaged  in  an  effort  to  raise  a Wesley  Monu- 
mental Church  in  Savannah,  Ga. 


740 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Yolhme. 


I think  this  a most  worthy  object,  and  you  are  at  liberty  to  use  the  appended 
recommendation  in  any  way  you  may  think  best. 

Yours  very  truly, 

James  Ogden, 

President  of  the  Methodist  New  Connection  Conference  in  England. 

Dr.  Clark  is  engaged  in  a movement  to  build  a ATesley  Monumental  Church  in 
Savannah,  Ga. 

He  comes  with  well-authenticated  credentials,  and  I think  his  object  a very 
worthy  one.  It  will  give  me  very  great  pleasure  to  know  that  our  friends  who 
have  the  ability  assist  in  the  furtherance  of  an  aim  so  eminently  worthy. 

James  Ogden,  President. 


Xin.  From  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  of  England. 

16  Palatine  Square, 
Burnlet,  April  5,  1879. 

Reu.  J.  0.  A.  Clark,  B.D.,  LL.B. : 

My  Dear  Brother  : In  reply  to  your  favor  I beg  to  say,  that  I heartily  concur  in 
and  sympathize  with  the  proposed  Wesley  Monumental  Church  in  Savannah,  and 
in  the  memorial  volume  you  are  about  to  publish.  I trust  the  British  branches  of 
Methodism  ivill  give  it  all  possible  sympathy  and  support.  Such  a memorial,  sus- 
tained by  all  the  branches  of  Methodism,  must  tend  to  strengthen  the  bands  of 
friendship  and  good-will  between  the  two  foremost  Protestant  nations  of  the 
earth. 

Wishing  you  all  success  in  your  noble  enterprise, 

I am,  my  dear  brother,  very  truly  yours, 

William  Boyden, 

President  of  the  Conference  of  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches. 


XiV.  From  the  Primitive  Methodists  op  England. 

Whitby,  England,  April  14,  1879. 

My  Dear  Sir  : Mr.  Dickinson  has  forwarded  your  letter  to  me,  and  in  reply  I 
beg  to  say  that  as  a Primitive  Methodist  minister  I cordially  approve  of  your  pro- 
posal to  erect  a church  in  memory  of  the  father  of  Methodism.  But  I am  unable 
to  write  officially  on  this  subject  without  the  sanction  of  our  Conference,  which 
cannot  be  obtained  before  the  latter  part  of  June. 

As  to  your  memorial  volume,  my  engagements  are  so  numerous  between  this 
time  and  June  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  contribute  an  article  that  would  be 
of  any  service  to  you  or  credit  to  me.  But  I will  forward  your  papers  to  our 
editor,  and  ask  him  to  comply  with  your  request. 

Praying  God  to  bless  your  undertaking, 

I am,  dear  sir,  yours  very  truly, 

Henry  Phillips, 

President  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Conference. 


Appendix. 


74-1 


XV.  From  the  Ret.  Matthieu  Lelietee,  of  the  Methodist  Chdech  in  France 
AND  Switzerland. 


Nimes,  France,  February  8,  1879. 

Re:u.  Fr.  Clark: 

Dear  Brother  ; I read  yours  of  Jan.  6th  with  the  greatest  interest.  Your  proj- 
ect of  building  a memorial  church,  in  remembrance  of  Wesley,  in  the  city  of  Savan- 
nah, Ga.,  where  he  preached,  I considered  from  the  first  a capital  idea.  I likewise 
admire  your  intention  of  associating  with  the  stone  monument  one  of  another  na- 
ture, and  of  a more  general  interest.  Your  memorial  volume  will  evidently  be  a 
very  interesting  work.  The  names  of  your  associates  and  the  subjects  treated  by 
them  furnish  a most  enticing  programme. 

I feel  highly  honored  in  occupying  a small  space  in  your  book.  . . . The  subject 
which  I shall  choose  is  “Wesley  as  a Popular  Preacher.” 

I shall  write  to  Mr.  Hocart  to  ask  him  to  contribute  to  the  work  if  he  has  time. 
I shall  also  be  happy  to  try  and  get  M.  de  Pressense  into  it.  He  never  has  had,  I 
think,  the  opportunity  of  witnessing  publicly  in  favor  of  Wesley.  Perhaps  he  may 
be  glad  to  avail  himself  of  this  one. 

Believe  me,  dear  sir,  yours  in  brotherly  and  Christian  fellowship, 

Matthieu  Lelievre. 


In  bringing  this  work  to  a close  the  Editor  will  add  that 
besides  the  Wesley  Monumental  Chukch,  and  the  Wesley 
Memorial  Volume,  he  has  in  view  a Wesley  Memorial  Li- 
brary, and  Wesley  Schools  in  Savannah.  As  a nucleus  of  the 
first  he  received,  while  in  London,  five  cases  of  books,  which 
are  among  the  most  appropriate  of  the  publications  of  the  Lon- 
don Tract  Society,  The  London  Sunday-School  Union,  The  Wes- 
leyan Sunday-School  Union,  and  the  Wesleyan  Book  Room. 
These  books,  the  gift  of  these  great  religious  houses  to  the  Wes- 
ley Memorial  Library,  were  conveyed,  free  of  charge,  by  a 
Cunard  steamer  from  Liverpool  to  New  York,  and  by  a steamer 
of  the  Central  Railroad  of  Georgia  from  New  York  to  Savannah. 
In  respect  of  the  second — Wesleyan  schools  in  Savannah  for  the 
education  of  the  children  of  the  Methodist  poor — the  writer 
hopes  that  Methodist  liberality,  at  no  distant  day,  will  establi-sh 
them  in  that  American  city  where  Wesley  taught,  and  where 
Whitefield  projected  his  Orphan  House. 

In  all  this,  and  in  all  else  he  has  said  or  done  in  connection 
with  the  Wesley  Monumental  Church,  the  Editor  has  sought 
not  to  glorify  W esley,  but  W esley’s  Master,  and  the  work  which 
Wesley’s  Master  wrought  through  him.  He  has  aimed  to  con- 
tribute his  mite  toward  preserving  and  strengthening  the  unity 
and  purity  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  believing  that  it  is  the  most 


742 


The  Wesley  Memorial  Volu^ie. 


efficient  Church  organism  which  God  has  ordained  in  these  latter 
days  for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  And  of  this  he  is  per- 
suaded, through  no  boastful  or  sectarian  spirit,  but  with  grateful 
and  devout  recognition  of  the  great  work  which  the  other  evan- 
gelical Churches  have  done,  and  are  still  doing,  for  Christ  and 
his  Church.  Indeed,  the  writer  looks  forward  to  the  Methodist 
Ecumenical  Council  not  only  to  strengthen  the  bands  of  the 
Methodist  brotherhood  of  Churches,  but  to  deepen  and  widen  its 
catholicity  toward  all  who,  holding  the  head,  are  earnestly  con- 
tending for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  All  Meth- 
odists acquainted  with  our  earlier  Methodist  history  will  recog- 
nize the  truthfulness  of  the  graceful  tribute  which  Dr.  Stoughton 
so  recently  paid  to  oiar  Methodist  Fathers  when  he  wrote,  “ lx 
WAS  IjST  this  one  pakticular,  brotherly  love,  that  the  old 
Methodists  were  so  mighty  and  invincible  ; ” and  they  will 
recall  the  saying  of  their  own  Watson:  “One  fundamental 
PRINCIPLE  OF  Wesleyan  Methodism  is  anti-sectarianism  and 
a catholic  spirit.” 

To  the  Ecumenical  Council,  also,  the  writer  looks  for  the 
greater  co-operation  of  all  Methodists  the  world  oyer  in  all  evan- 
gelical work,  for  the  wider  spread  of  scriptural  holiness  over  all 
lands,  and  for  a reviyal  of  the  Spirit’s  work  in  the  last  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  broader  and  deeper  than  that  which,  under 
God,  Wesley  kindled  in  the  later  half  of  the  eighteenth.  To 
effect  these  great  results  may  the  Ecumenical  Council — for  whose 
meeting  the  Editor  has  long  labored,  and  to  which,  with  anxious 
interest,  he  has  been  long  looking — be  pre-eminently  conducive. 
But  he  does  not  rest  here.  His  desires  and  prayers  have  respect, 
in  the  meeting-  of  the  Council,  to  the  complete  fraternization  of 
those  Methodist  bodies,  from  which  the  causes  of  alienation  have 
been  providentially  and  happily  removed;  to  the  annihilation  of 
every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  those  that  ought  to  be  organically 
one;  and  to  a more  perfect  union  among  themselves  and  with 
all  the  rest  of  those  whose  separate  organisms  are  justified  and 
demanded  by  good  and  sufficient  reasons. 

And  is  it  too  much  to  hope — as  an  immediate,  or  ultimate, 
consequence  of  the  meeting  of  the  Council — that  Methodist  doc- 
trine will  be  so  formulated  that  the  Methodist  standards,  and  the 
interpretation  of  the  standards,  shall  be  uniform  among  all  the 
people  called  Methodists  ? Is  it  too  much  to  expect,  as  another 


Appendix. 


743 


result  of  the  assembly,  that  all  Methodists  thenceforth,  out  of 
one  and  the  same-  hymn  book,  shall  sing  the  songs  which  give 
the  most  faithful  and  harmonious  expression  to  Methodist  doc- 
trine and  to  Methodist  experience  ? Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that 
the  various  Methodisms  shall  be  so  one  in  doctrine,  in  usages,  in 
polity,  in  spirit,  and  in  aims,  that  transfers  may  be  as  natural 
and  easy  from  one  separate  Methodist  body  to  another  as  from 
one  Annual  Conference  to  another  of  the  same  body  ? Is  it  too 
much  to  expect  that  even  different  organisms,  whenever  it  can  be 
conveniently  done,  shall  unite  in  all  their  foreign  mission  work  ? 
Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  all  the  different  Methodisms,  how- 
ever separated  by  geographical  boundaries,  by  mountain  barriers, 
or  by  intervening  oceans,  shall  be  so  one  in  Christ  Jesus  the 
Lord,  that  in  him  the  whole  body  fitly  joined  together,  and 
compacted  by  that  which  every  joint  suppiieth,  according  to  the 
effectual  working  in  the  measure  of  every  part,  may  make  increase 
of  the  body  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love  ? May  it  not  be 
devoutly  wished  that  greater  heed  will  be  given  to  the  almost 
dying  words  of  Wesley  to  Ezekiel  Cooper:  “Lose  no  oj^portunity 
of  declaring  to  all  men  that  the  Methodists  are  one  people  in  all 
the  world,  and  that  it  is  their  full  determination  so  to  continue, 

‘ Though  mountains  rise,  and  oceans  roll. 

To  sever  them  in  vain  ? ’ ” 

May  we  not  confidently  pray  that  all  Methodisms  may  be  such 
members  one  of  another  that  if  one  suffer  all  shall  suffer  with 
it  ; if  one  rejoice,  all  shall  rejoice  with  it  ; and  if  one  be  in  need 
and  call  for  help,  all  shall  be  willing  to  lend  a helping  hand,  and 
all  that  are  able  be  swift  to  “ perform  the  doing  of  it  ? ” And 
may  not  the  editor  of  this  volume  humbly  but  confidingly  trust 
that  at  the  Ecumenical  Council  he  shall  witness  the  sanction  of 
assembled  Methodism  to  his  earnest  and  persistent  efforts  to 
secure  a joint  memorial  of  Methodism’s  illustrious  founder? 

The  labors  of  the  Editor  are  ended.  He  concludes  this  volume 
with  the  same  prayer  with  which  he  closed  its  Introduction  : 
Mat  this  book  do  bead  good  to  souls,  and  lead  many  to 

THINK  WHAT  IT  WAS  THAT  WINS  ALL  THIS  RENOWN  TO  THE  ONCE 
HUMBLE  PREACHER,  BUT  NOW  EXALTED  SAINT,  WHOSE  LIFE  AND 
WORK  ARE  COMAIEMORATED  IN  ITS  PAGES! 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  BUILDIHG  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WESLEY  MONU- 
MENTAL CHURCH,  IN  SAVANNAH,  GA. 


EOBEET  D.  WALKEE, 
C.  D.  EOGEES, 
EOBEET  M’INTIEE, 

E.  B.  EEPPAED, 

W.  H.  BDEEELL, 

C.  H.  CAESON. 


THE  WESLEY  MEMORIAL  VOLUME ; 

OR, 

WESLEY  AND  THE  METHODIST  MOVEMENT  JUDGED  BY  NEARLY 
ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  WRITERS,  LIVING  OR  DEAD. 

EDITED  BY 

Rev.  J.  0.  A.  CLARK,  D.D.,  LLD. 


The  above  is  the  title  of  a book  soon  to  be  issued  from  the  press  of 
Phillips  & Hunt,  New  York.  It  is  published  in  the  interest  of  the 
Wesley  Monumental  Church,  now  building  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  the 
only  city  in  America  where  Mr.  Wesley  had  a home  and  a parish.  The 
net  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  the  book  will  be  exclusively  devoted  to 
the  completion  of  the  church  in  Savannah. 

The  book  is  made  up  of  contributions  by  forty-two  of  the  best 
writers  of  Europe  and  America.  These  are  living  writers,  who  have 
written  able  and  elaborate  articles  on  some  subject  relating  to  the  life 
and  labors  of  that  many-sided  man,  John  Wesley.  Besides  these,  ex- 
cerpts are  made  from  the  writings  of  one  hundred  others,  living  or  dead. 
The  writers  are  not  Methodists  alone ; they  represent  nearly  every  branch 
of  the  evangelical  Christian  Church. 

The  book  is  pronounced  the  most  unique  of  its  kind  that  has  ever 
been  given  to  the  public.  The  names  of  the  writers  and  the  subjects 
on  which  they  have  written  are  a sure  pledge  of  the  ability  with  which 
the  work  is  written  and  of  the  interest  it  will  awaken.  It  is  a work 
approved  by  every  branch  of  the  evangelical  Christian  Church.  It  illus- 
trates not  only  Metliodism,  but  the  Great  Revival  of  the  eighteenth  cent- 
ury, as  it  affected  the  whole  work  of  God  in  Euroire  and  America.  It  is 
a beautiful  and  deserved  tribute  unanimously  jjaid  to  the  man  who, 
under  God,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  says,  “gave  the  main  impulse,  out  of 
which  sprang  the  evangelical  movement,’’  aud  who,  as  Dean  Stanley 
says,  “was  the  chief  reviver  of  religious  fervor  in  all  Protestant 
Churches,  both  of  tlie  Old  aud  New  World.” 

The  writers  who  have  contributed  articles  especially  for  the  volume 
are  distributed  as  follows: 

ENGLAND. 

The  Wesleyans  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ai  e represented  by  the 
Rev.  Drs.  Rigg,  Pope,  Punshon,  Gervase  Smith,  and  Jobson,  the  Rev. 
Luke  Tyerman,  and  Mr.  George  J.  Stevenson. 

The  Methodist  New  Connection,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  William  Cooke, 
and  Mr.  Thomas  Austin  Bullock,  LL.D. 


The  Methodist  United  Free  Churches,  by  the  Rev.  Josejih  Kirsop. 

The  Church  op  England  is  represented  by  Dean  Stanley,  of  West- 
minster Abbey;  the  Rev.  0.  T.  Dobbin,  LL.D.,  of  Trinity  College,  Dub- 
lin; and  Mr.  Overton,  of  the  University  of  Oxfhrd.  Mr.  Overton  and 
Mr.  Abbey  are  the  joint  authors  of  the  greatest  Church  History  of  the 
times — “The  Church  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.” 

The  Non-conformist  Churches  of  England  are  represented  by  Sir 
Charles  Reed,  M.P.,  LL.D.,  president  of  the  London  Sunday-School 
Union  and  of  the  London  School  Board. 

Besides  these  articles,  letters  appear  in  the  volume  from  Mr.  Spur- 
geon, of  the  Tabernacle,  London;  Rev.  Nevrman  Hall,  LL.B.,  of  Christ 
Church  Square,  London;  Mr.  Lecky,  the  celebrated  author  of  the 
“History  of  European  Civilization,”  etc.,  and  of  the  “History  of 
England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century;”  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ellicott,  Lord 
Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol;  and  the  Rt.  Hon.  Wm.  E.  Gladstone, 
the  present  Premier  of  England. 


FRANCE. 

France  is  represented  in  the  work  by  the  Rev.  Matthieu  Lelihvre,  the 
author  of  a “Life  of  Wesley”  that  has  been  translated  into  nearly  every 
language  of  modern  Europe,  and  by  the  Rev.  Edmond  de  PressensS,  D.D., 
of  the  Reformed  Church  op  Paris,  and  of  the  University  of  Breslau, 
author  of  “The  Life  of  Christ,”  and  many  other  brilliant  works. 

THE  CANADAS. 

The  Methodist  Church  op  Canada  is  represented  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Potts,  of  Toronto,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Douglass,  of  Montreal. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  op  Canada,  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Webster,  and  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jacques,  Chancellor  of  the  Abbott  Uni- 
versity, at  Hamilton,  Ontario. 

THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  represented  by  Bishops  Simp- 
son, Foss,  and  Erastus  O.  Haven,  the  Rev.  Drs.  Abel  Stevens,  John  P. 
Newman,  and  W.  H.  De  Puy,  and  by  the  Rev.  Dwight  Williams,  and 
the  Rev.  Isaac  P.  Cook. 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  by  the  late  Rev.  Alexander 
Clarke,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  A.  A.  Lipscomb,  D.D. 

The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  by  Chancellor  B.  F. 
Lee,  L.B.,  of  Wilberforce  University,  Xenia,  Ohio. 

The  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  op  America,  by  Bishop 
Lucius  M.  Holsey. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  by  Bishops  Pierce, 
M’Tyeire,  and  Wightman,  and  by  Drs.  Lovick  Pierce,  Summers,  Hay- 
good,  and  Clark. 


Library  Bureau  Cat.  DO.  1137 


Duke  University  Libraries 


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